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SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 



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SHALL WE 

CONTINUE IN SIN? 

A VITAL QUESTION FOR BELIEVERS 
ANSWERED IN THE WORD OF GOD 



THE SUBSTANCE OF ADDRESSES DELIVERED IN 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN 1896 



BY 



ARTHUR T. PIERSON 




NEW YORK 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

5 AND 7 East Sixteenth Street ^ j- I n 



-e 



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Copyright, 1897, by 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 



TROW oirectohy 

PRINTINQ AND ROOKBINOINQCOMPAMV 
N£Vy YOOX 



REV. EVAN H, HOPKINS, 

OF LONDON, ENGLAND^ 

And to those who with him are seeking to lead God's people out 

of the wilderness into the Land of Promise ^ and teach them 

" The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life^* this little 

book is dedicated by his friend^ the Author ^ with 

deep affection, and gratitude for the blessing 

received through his testimony to the fulness 

of Blessing which is in 

Christ yesus 



CONTENTS 



Introductory, 

I. Judicial Union with Christ, 

II. Vital Union with Christ, 

III. Practical Union with Christ, 

IV. Actual Union with Christ, . 
V. Marital Union with Christ, 

VI. Spiritual Union with Christ, 

VII. Eternal Union with Christ, 



9 
13 

32 
47 
60 

79 

91 

107 



SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 



INTRODUCTORY 

The Bible is the most practical of all books. It 
is a fact, both curious and significant, that, some- 
where, in the word of God, we may find at least 
once, a full if not an exhaustive discussion of each 
particular matter, which has close relations to 
man's salvation and sanctification. 

For example, the value and excellence of the 
Law of God is treated in Psalm cxix. ; the fact of 
Vicarious Atonement, in Isaiah liii. ; the nature of 
the Kingdom of God and its true subjects, in Mat- 
thew v., vi., vii. ; the Beauty of Charity, in I. Cor- 
inthians xiii. ; the Resurrection of the Dead, in I. 
Corinthians xv. ; the Principles of Christian Giving, 
in II. Corinthians viii., ix., etc. The person and 
work of the Holy Spirit, in John xiv,, xv., xvi. The 
present Rest of Faith, in Hebrews iii., iv. The 
mischief of an untamed tongue, in James iii. And 
so here, in three chapters, in Romans vi., vii., viii., 
we have the Duty and Privilege of non-continuance 
in Sin set before us with a clearness and fulness 



lO SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

which make all other discussion of the subject 
comparatively needless. 

We cannot mistake the subject here treated. The 
sixth chapter opens with the plain question : Shall 
we continue in sin? a question substantially repeated 
in verse 15, Shall we sin? and in chapter vii. 7, 
Is the Law Sin ? In all three cases the answer 
is a short, energetic, and most emphatic " God 
forbid ! ** The very thought is to be put away as 
a fatal snare to the soul, as when Christ said to 
Satan, "Get thee hence !** Nothing could more 
clearly teach that continuance in sinning is to 
be regarded by every true child of God as both 
needless and wrong. The doctrine of sinlessness 
is not here taught, but of not continuing in sin. 
Being without sin, and not going on in sin, are 
two quite different things.* 

* Comp. X John i. 8 — ii. i. Also Dr. Handley Moule, in a 
letter quoted in the Homiletic Review. September, 1896, p. 242. 

** But I come to speak briefly of the limits. 

*' I will not dwell upon them, but I must indicate them. I 
mean, of course, not limits in our aims, for there must be none^ 
nor limits in divine grace itself, for there are none, but 
limits, however caused, in the actual attainment by us of 
Christian holiness. 

*' Here I hold, with absolute conviction, alike from the ex- 
perience of the church and from the infallible W^ord, that, in 
the mystery of things, there will be limits to the last, and very 
humbling limits, very real fallings short. To the last it will be 
a sinner that walks with God. To the last will * abide in the 
regenerate' (art. ix.) that strange tendency, that *mind of the 



INTRODUCTORY II 

Thus does Paul introduce a discussion of this 
theme which occupies three chapters of this epistle ; 
for there seems to be no break in the continuity 
of the argument, until the close of the eighth 
chapter, where, manifestly, he closes the discussion 
of this subject and enters upon another. To ex- 
amine this topic, therefore, and get the whole force 
of the divine argument, we need to regard these 
three chapters as a whole, and follow from step 
to step, till we reach the grand climax. 

One great thought runs like a thread of gold 
through the whole of this process of reasoning, 
namely : that the disciple's security for non-continuance 
in sinning is found in his Union with the Lord Jesus 
Christ. This, which in previous chapters is pre- 
sented as the sole ground of Justification^ is now 
presented also as the sole basis and hope of Sane- 
tification: as Christ does away with the penalty for 
sin by His death, so by His Life He puts an end to 
its power over the true believer. 

flesh,' which eternal grace can wonderfully deal with, but 
which is a tendency still. 

*' To the last, the soul's acceptance before the Judge is 
wholly and only in the righteousness, the merits, of Christ. 

* * To the last, if we say we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves. In the pure, warm sunshine of the Father's smile 
shed upon him, the loving and willing child will yet say, ' Enter 
not into judgment with thy servant.' Walking in the light as 
He is in the light, having fellowship with him, and He with 
us, we yet need to the last the blood of Calvary, the blood 
of propitiation, to deal with sin." 



12 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

As these chapters are carefully examined, this 
union of the disciple with Christ appears to be 
considered in a seven-fold aspect which, for conven- 
ience sake, we may indicate or designate by seven 
words which, without, perhaps, being scrupulously 
exact, may serve simply as so many landmarks to 
outline the grand divisions of the argument : Ju- 
dicial, Vital, Practical, Actual, Marital, Spiritual, 
and Eternal. 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

The first aspect of this union of the believer 
with Christ is the Judicial, This belongs first in 
logical order as basis of all the rest. This word, 
Judicial, is a legal term, having reference to the 
act or decision of a judge in a court of law. It is 
peculiar in this, that it has- no necessary reference 
to, or connection with, the actual character or even 
guilt of the accused party. A judicial decision 
concerns one question only, namely, the claim of 
the law upon him and the jurisdiction of the court 
over him. A man may be actually a transgressor, 
and yet for some reason be not amenable to a legal 
penalty. There may be some technicality, under 
cover of which he escapes, or some sovereign act 
of mercy removing him from the control of the 
court, or some interposition of a third party medi- 
ating between him and exact justice. In either 
case, without regard to his essential merit or the 
moral desert of his acts, the judge pronounces him 
acquitted, in effect legally innocent. A judicial 



14 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

decision, therefore, refers to standing rather than 
state J it is a question of exposure to penalty, not of 
essential character or moral desert. 

For example, in the former days when bank- 
ruptcy was treated as a crime and debtors were 
imprisoned, a man's debts were sometimes dis- 
charged by another, and he was consequently 
released. He might have been careless and even 
dishonest in the use of funds, and deserving of 
punishment as a moral offender, but the only ques- 
tion before the court would be, are his debts paid ? 
and if so the judicial decision would be that he 
was a free man. 

A case recently occurred in British Courts, 
where a man was sued for breach of promise. It 
was a case of flagrant wrong. The man had led 
the woman to believe that he would marry her, 
and his whole course with her justified such ex- 
pectation ; but no proof could be adduced that 
any explicit pledge had been given, and he was 
acquitted, although he was, in fact, a seducer and 
betrayer. 

These two examples, respectively, illustrate the 
effect of the interposition of a third party, or of 
the absence of technical proof, in freeing an ac- 
cused party from the penalty of law. As to the 
effect of a sovereign act of clemency, that may 
be seen in Pilate's release of Barabbas, or in any 
act of pardon issued by proper magisterial author- 
ity. 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 1 5 

We have thus given three examples of judicial 
acquittal : 

1. On the basis of a technicality: Breach of 
promise. 

2. On the basis of a Sovereign Act : Pardon of 
State prisoners as on the accession or coronation 
of a King. 

3. On the basis of human interposition : Bank- 
ruptcy. 

Illustrations might be multiplied, were it needful, 
to show this principle, but these suffice to make 
clear that a judicial decision has reference only to 
a man's attitude before the law, to his legal stand- 
ing and not his moral state, his liability or expos- 
ure to penalty, and not his inherent character and 
actual desert ; and we have been thus careful to 
define the term judicial, because the whole system 
of redemption rests upon this basis, that God has 
made a provision whereby He can judicially ac- 
quit a guilty sinner. With this great fact and 
thought the whole of the first part of the Epistle 
to the Romans is mainly occupied. 

First, the Apostle proves that all men. Gentiles 
and Jews alike, are guilty before God. With dif- 
ferent degrees of light and revelation of His will, 
they have all alike sinned and come short of the 
Glory of God. And by an irresistible argument 
he reaches this conclusion, that every mouth is 
stopped and all the world becomes guilty before 
God (iii. 19). There is no man who is not a sin- 



1 6 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

ner, and a sinner without excuse. And he adds, 
'^ Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall 
no flesh be justified in his sight." 

Here we come to another legal term which it is 
necessary for us to understand : Justified. It is not 
equivalent to just^ but rather in contrast with it. 
The word, just, refers to character ; justified, to 
standing. If an unjust man is judicially acquitted 
he is, so far as the law is concerned, justified ; that 
is, accounted and treated as just or righteous. 

The Problem of Redemption was this ; to justify 
the sinner without justifying his sin, to save him 
from legal penalty and yet save God from compro- 
mise and complicity with his guilt. Justice de- 
manded the exaction of penalty in the interest of 
law and perfect government ; mercy yearned to 
rescue the offender in the interests of love and 
divine fatherhood. The problem was so perplex- 
ing that only Infinite Wisdom and grace together 
were equal to its solution. Now that it is solved, 
it may seem simple, as it is easy to unlock the 
most complicated lock when you have the key that 
belongs to it ; but, if that problem had been origi- 
nally submitted to the united wisdom of all human 
philosophers and wise men, it would still remain 
unsolved. 

We can plainly see some of the difficulties that 
entered into the case. There was no question that 
all men were sinners, sinners against a righteous 
God and a perfect law, and it is equally evident 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 1/ 

that the sanctions of government must be main- 
tained ; for the moment that the certainty that 
every transgression and disobedience will receive 
its just recompense of reward no longer exists, 
good government is not only in peril — it has abso- 
lutely ceased. If God would save the sinner from 
his just punishment, He must not do it at the 
expense of His own law or His own holiness. Any 
judge in any court that allows laxity in adminis- 
tering justice sets a premium upon crime. Chief 
Justice Hale used to say, "When I feel myself 
swayed by the impulses of mercy toward an 
offender, let me remember that there is a mercy 
due unto my country." 

The root idea of the gospel is that, by the sub- 
stitution of Christ for the sinner before the law, in 
a perfect life of obedience and a death of vicarious 
suffering, the ends of the law and of justice were 
so answered as that God could judicially acquit 
the sinner and yet not tarnish the glory of his 
own perfection. To get hold of that truth is the 
beginning of our education in the School of 
Christ, for it is the first lesson in Redemption. 

We can all see that several ends might be 
answered by the punishment of sin in the person 
of the actual transgressor. For example, it would 
serve : 

1. To magnify the Law and make it honorable. 

2. To uphold the sanctions of perfect govern- 
ment. 



1 8 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

3. To visit just penalty upon transgressors. 

4. To exhibit the essential guilt and ill desert 
of sin. 

5. To warn and deter other offenders. 

6. To indicate and vindicate the character of 
God. 

7. To discriminate between the righteous and 
the wicked. 

Now were not all these ends met in the atoning 
work of our Lord Jesus Christ? Transgression 
was visited with a penalty which also exhibited 
the deformity and enormity of sin ; and an eternal 
lesson was taught the universe which may, to an 
extent now inconceivable by us, warn and deter 
other creatures of God from evil-doing ; and it has 
been shown that the Law and government of God 
will be upheld at any cost, and that in the great 
God Himself there is infinite abhorrence of sin. 

Of course our point of prospect is limited ; there 
may be other purposes answered in Christ's sub- 
stitution of which we have now neither knowledge 
nor notion ; but we can see enough already to feel 
moved like Paul himself to exclaim, " O the depth 
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge 
of God ! How unsearchable are His Judgments 
and His ways past finding out ! ** Rom. xi. 33. 

The fact, declared in this Epistle, whether or 
not we are equal to the divine philosophy of it, is, 
that **now the Righteousness of God apart from 
the law is manifested ; even the Righteousness of 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 1 9 

God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, 
and upon all them that believe," etc. Chap. iii. 
21-26. 

Let us learn this by heart, for it is the very sum 
and substance of the whole mystery of Redemp- 
tion : All have sinned and come short of His 
glory, and therefore there is no hope of justifica- 
tion through the law, which can only make us 
more and more terribly conscious of sin and guilt. 
But God has set forth Christ Jesus to be a Propi- 
tiation for our sins, and we may be justified 
freely by His grace through faith in His blood. 

Now notice where lies the emphasis of this whole 
passage : God hath set forth his Atoning Son, not 
to declare His indifference to sin and His laxity 
in pardoning, but ^^ to declare His righteousness'' — 
even in the remission of sin. And Paul repeats 
this that it may more deeply engrave itself on our 
minds — to declare I say at this time His Right- 
eousness : that He might be Just and the Justijier oj 
him which believeth in Jesus. In one word the pur- 
pose and perfection of this atoning work is that it 
makes it possible for a Just and Holy God to re- 
main perfectly just and holy, and yet not only par- 
don a sinner but account him just, that is. Judi- 
cially acquit him and give him the standing of an 
innocent party. 

The natural and carnal heart wars against even 
the grace of God, too proud to submit to being 
saved in God's way, because all boasting is ex- 



20 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

eluded. And so men find fault with the very love 
that seeks to find provision in atonement. The 
sinner dares to criticise grace and declares that it 
is impossible for an innocent party to take the 
place of the guilty, or for a judicial acquittal to be 
justly pronounced in the transgressor's case. And 
yet the principle of vicarious substitution is not 
wholly unknown even in human affairs. It is a 
story, told of Bronson Alcott, that, when obliged 
to administer a bodily chastisement upon a dis- 
obedient school-boy, his older brother who was 
present asked that he might receive the flogging 
in place of the offender. And Professor Alcott 
put the question to the school, whether the laws 
which the boys had themselves framed would be 
sufficiently honored by such substitution, and they 
consented ; so that he actually whipped the older 
brother in place of the younger transgressor, and 
with a profound impression on the school-boys 
both as to the dignity of Law and the unselfishness 
of Love and Mercy. Whether or not the incident 
be authentic, it serves as an illustration. 

Enough has been written perhaps to introduce 
us to the great thought first presented in this 
sixth chapter of Romans. When Paul asks, shall 
we continue in sin ? his first reply is. How shall we 
that have died to sin live any longer therein ! 
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death ? 
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 21 

into death. Here three affirmations meet us : first 
we have died to sin ; second, so many as were bap- 
tized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death j 
third, by such baptism we were buried with him into 
death. In other words, there has been on the part of 
every believer, a death unto sin ; and a burial with 
Christ in the sepulchre ; and that death and burial 
are expressed, confessed and symbolized in baptism. 
It is perfectly plain that these words can be 
understood only judicially. We are all of us con- 
scious of no such actual identification with Christ 
in death and burial. We have never yet really 
died or been laid in the grave. The only way to 
interpret these words is to interpret them, not as 
expressing a historical fact, but a judicial act, 
something counted or reckoned or imputed to our 
account by the sovereign mercy and grace of God. 
That they are so to be interpreted is plain from 
the whole argument preceding. The first direct 
mention of a judicial righteousness found in the 
New Testament is in the opening chapters of this 
Epistle. The germ of it is in the gospels and the 
Acts, but the germ comes to its growth and plain 
exhibition here, as we have seen in Romans iii. 19- 
28. There we are plainly taught that God has 
devised a plan for human redemption, whereby 
He reckons the believing and penitent sinner so 
one with Christ that His obedience is imputed to 
the sinner as his own and His atoning suffering is 
reckoned as the sinner's own expiation or satisfac- 



22 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

tion of the legal claim and penalty. Here we are 
first introduced to the full meaning of that truth 
of which the whole Bible is at once the miracle 
and the parable, that the unity of a believing sin- 
ner with an atoning Saviour is first of all di judicial 
one, reckoned such, apart from all our legal obedi- 
ence, and our undeserving character, by the infinite 
grace of God. This is the fundamental fact and 
truth of redemption, and faith in it is fundamental 
to our salvation. The believer is in Jesus^ in the 
sight of God, and is so judged and acquitted as 
clothed with God's righteousness. 

Paul, moreover, shows that this doctrine of 
Righteousness imputed on account of faith, is no 
new doctrine, but pervades the old Covenant as 
well as the new, for he refers back to Abraham, 
the father of the faithful, and to that grand verse 
in Genesis (xv. 6) where for the first time in the 
Word of God we meet these three words in con- 
junction — believed, counted, and Righteousness. 
There it is declared that Abraham believed in 
Jehovah and He counted, or imputed it unto him 
for righteousness. That verse becomes the key to 
the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians, 
and to the Epistle of James, thus linking old and 
new Testaments together.* The doctrine thus 
found in the " Law " is also found in *' the Psalms " 
and the "Prophets.'' f 

* Rom. iv. 1-5. Gal. HI 6. James 11. 23. 

f Compare Psalm xxxii. i, 2, and Habakkuk ii. 4. 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 2% 

How far this acquittal of the sinner is judicial, 
based on the ground of imputation, not actual 
righteousness in the sinner, is plain from Rom. iv. 
17 — where we are told that God quickeneth the 
dead and calleth those things which be not as 
though they were. God in justifying sinners actu- 
ally counts them righteous when they are not — does 
not impute sin where sin actually exists, arid does 
impute righteousness where it does not exist. 
Abraham, because he had God's promise^ counted 
as done what seemed impossible as well as unreal ; 
and God honored such faith by in turn counting 
as existing in Abraham a righteousness which was 
not his. The believer counts God able to make 
him alive with His own life and holy with His own 
holiness. God in turn counts the sinner now 
dead in sin to be dead to sin and alive to God, 
counts him as righteous, and then proceeds to 
make him what he at first only reckons him to be. 
Comp. Romans iv. 4-8, 17, 21, 22. 

This plan of salvation is further unfolded in the 
fifth chapter. Being thus justified by faith we 
have peace with God — all controversy between us 
and Him is forever over — and all conflict with 
His perfect law and holy government. We were 
** without strength " to help ourselves but He laid 
help on One who is mighty to save. We were sin- 
ners and Christ died in our stead ; we were ene- 
mies and by his death the enmity was done away 
in reconciliation : chap. v. 6-8. So that, where sin 



24 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

abounded and reigned unto death, grace much 
more abounds and reigns unto eternal life. How- 
ever we may quarrel with God's plan of salvation 
there is no doubt about the plan as here taught. 

What pregnant words then are these seven! 
" Buried with Him by baptism into death/' 

Burial implies death and death implies previous 
life. 

" With Him *' implies that all this experience of 
life, death and burial is through our identification 
with Him, our Lord Jesus. 

** By baptism '* implies that the act whereby this 
identification is both symbolized and exhibited is 
baptism. 

It now becomes clear in what sense we have 
died to sin — been buried with Christ and baptized 
into his death — these become facts by 2l judicial coti- 
struction. Faith makes us one with Jesus Christ, 
so that, in God's sight, what is literally and actu- 
ally true of Him, becomes judicially, representa- 
tively, constructively, true of us. We died when 
he died ; we were buried when he was buried ; 
and as many of us as have been baptized into 
Christ have been baptized into His death, that is, 
our baptism was the confession of our identity 
with Him, and our symbolic putting on of Christ. 
As the mutual clasping of hands or exchange of 
rings in marriage is the expression and confession 
and symbolism of the union of holy wedlock ; as 
the taking off of the shoe was the confession of a 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 2$ 

holy place whereon one must walk softly and 
reverently with God ; as the bowing of the body 
and bending of the knee are the expression of wor- 
ship and spiritual prostration before God ; so, to 
go down into a watery grave, as Christ did, ex- 
presses our faith in and following of Him — in His 
death and burial.* 

Thus we touch the very heart of the gospel 
mystery, our identity by faith with the Son of 
God. And we touch also that kindred mystery of 

* It is surprising what a consensus of opinion there is on this 
subject among the most devout commentators, see Vaughan on 
Romans, pp. 117, 118. 

*'A11 christians died when Christ died. That is the date, 
for all, of that death which is their life. But the personal ap- 
propriation of this death with Christ is later in time. It comes 
only with faith. Baptism (in case of a penitent and beheving 
convert) was the moment of the individual incorporation. IVe 
were baptized utto Christy Acts 2, 38. 

** We were buried then with him, by means of that baptism, 
into that death. In other words, our baptism was a sort of 
funeral ; a solemn act of consigning us to that death of Christ 
in which we are made one with Him, and with this object : not 
that we might remain dead, but that we might rise with Him 
from death, experience (even in this world) the power of His 
resurrection, and live the life we now live in the flesh as men 
who have already died and risen again." 

Also, Handley G. C. Moule, on Romans, p. 164. 

'* For if we became vitally connected. He with us, and we 
with Him, by the likeness of His death, by the baptismal 
plunge, symbol and seal of our faith-union with the buried 
sacrifice, why we shall be vitally connected with Him by the 
likeness also of His Resurrection, by the baptismal emergence, 



26 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

the Son of Man. He was GoSl — the Redeemer — 
and a Redeemer must not only have power to re- 
deem, by being lifted above the sin and corruption 
of the human race, but must have the righ: to re- 
deem by being let down to the level of the race 
he sought to save. And so, in redeeming man, 
God must be manifest in the flesh. He must have 
the right to redeem by being identified with our 
humanity. The Son of God must become Son of 
Man, Hence Christ is called the Second Man and 
the Last Adam, i Cor. xv. 45, 47. 

Observe, not the Second Man only, as in verse 
47, but the Last Man or Adam — for this excludes 
any succession. We can understand the last Adam 
only by understanding \h^ first. Who was the first 
Adam but the Judicial Head of the race he repre- 
sented ? Whatever may be our theological defini- 
tion of our relation to Adam, the practical fact is 
that he stood for us and when he fell, we fell. He 
could transmit to his descendants no higher nat- 
ure than his own, and so it is significantly said, 
that he begat a son in his own likeness. His own 
nature being fallen, he transmitted a fallen nature 
with its proneness to sin, and its exposure to pains 
and penalties. As he had lost his original estate, 

symbol and seal of our faith-union with our risen Lord and so 
with His risen power." 

Let it be remembered that the comments and the paraphrase 
above quoted, are from two of the leading evangelical clergy- 
men of the Anglican Church. 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 2/ 

his children could inherit only his moral bank- 
ruptcy and ruin ; and, as he had forfeited his right 
to the tree of life, his offspring find the cherubim 
with the flaming sword, still guarding the way, 
until we come by a new and living way, through 
the rent vail of Christ's crucified body. 

Christ is therefore, as the Last Adam, what the 
first Adam was, the representative of the race. By 
blood and birth we were all identified with Adam ; 
by the faith in the blood that atones and by the 
new birth of the Spirit, we become identified with 
the Last Adam. We exchange the standing of sin- 
ners for the standing of saints, the bankruptcy of* 
sin for the riches of holiness, and the forfeited 
right to the Tree of Life for the full and eternal 
enjoyment of all sacramental privilege. Rev. 
xxii. 1-14, R. V. 

The most precious names applied to Christ are 
more or less a commentary on this most compre- 
hensive title, the Last Adam. He is the Good 
Shepherd, so identified with the sheep that by his 
death he purchases their salvation from death. 
He is the Vine, so identified with the branches that 
by His life they receive life, strength, growth and 
power to bear fruit. He is the Foundation, the 
very basis, so identified with the building that 
every believer as a living stone both rests upon 
Him and is cemented to Him and built up with 
Him into one building or Temple of God and habi- 
tation of God through the Spirit. He is the Bride- 



28 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

groom, so one with the bride that she is reckoned 
part of Him, they twain being one flesh. He is the 
Head and we are members of His body and can- 
not be separated from Him, so identified with Him 
that all life, growth, sustenance, increase, depend 
on the union. 

Hence we can understand how God reckons us 
to have died and been buried when He died and 
was buried. Judicially it is true, for what happens 
to our Great Representative is true of all whom he 
represents. We are not surprised then when we 
find, on the careful study of the New Testament, 
that this conception of our Judicial Union with 
Christ not only pervades all its teaching but is the 
interpreting Key to His life ; all that He did and 
suffered as the Son of Man was typical and repre- 
sentative of the whole body of believers. In this 
sixth of Romans five words are used, all of them rep- 
resentative : " died," " buried,'* " risen,'* " planted," 
" crucified." All are declared to be applicable to 
us as believers. And when we turn to the Epistle 
to the Colossians this same thought is further ex- 
panded. Compare Coloss. ii. 10-13 \ iii- i~4- 

Here the great phrase is one of two words : IN 
HIM. He is the Head, and what is true of the 
Head is true of the body. Here seven terms are 
used to express this unity or identity — in Him and 
with Him it is declared that we are circumcised^ 
buried^ risen^ quickened^ seated^ our life hid in God 
and to appear when He appears. 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 29 

These seven phrases suggest that His whole life 
as Son of Man and Last Adam, was representative 
and typical ; and that its full explanation can be 
found only in its representative character ; that is, 
every great event or experience had reference to 
the body of which He is Head — the race of which 
He is the Last Adam. 

In that career of Christ there are at least fifteen 
grand and salient points : His Birth or Incarnation, 
Presentation and Circumcision, Baptism, Anointing, 
Temptation, Passion, Crucifixion, Burial, Quick- 
ening, Resurrection, Forty days of Resurrec- 
tion Walk, Ascension, Session at God^s right hand 
and Hidden Life of Intercession, and final Reap- 
pearance. Every one of these is a typical fact, as 
will appear if we examine scripture. Hence the 
force of those constantly recurring phrases : in 
Him, by Him, for Him, through Him, with Him, etc. 

His miraculous Birth was a type of our new 
birth from above whereby we enter the kingdom, 
not by a natural, but by a supernatural process. 

His circumcision, the type of the putting off 
the body of the sins of the flesh. Col. ii. 11. 

His presentation in the temple, of our self-offer- 
ing to God. Rom. xii. i. 

His Baptism, of our Confession of Him as Sav- 
iour and Lord — the answer of a good conscience 
toward God. i Pet. iii. 21. 

His Temptation, of our Conflict with and Con- 
quest over Satan. Jas. iv. 7 ; i John iv. 4. 



30 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

His Anointing, of our Reception of Holy Ghost 
indwelling and power, i John ii. 20-27. 

His Passion, of our entire Surrender to the Will 
of God even unto death. Heb. xii. 4, 5. 

His Crucifixion, of our death unto the penalty 
and guilt of sin. Gal. ii. 20. 

His Burial, of our leaving in His sepulchre all 
corruption of the old man. Col. iii. 9. 

His Resurrection, of our rising into newness of 
life. Col. iii. i. 

His Quickening, of our being pervaded by the 
life and power of God. Col. ii. 13. 

His Forty Days of resurrection life and power 
correspond to our complete walk with God after 
regeneration. Rom. viii. 4, 5. 

His Session at God's Right Hand, to our pres- 
ent life of privilege. Col. iii. i, 2. 

His Hidden Life, to our secret incorporation 
unto Him. Col. iii. 3. 

His Intercession, to our identity with him in 
mediation. Heb. x. 19-21. 

His Coming Again, to our final resurrection and 
revelation. Coloss. iii. 4. 

This analogy might be indefinitely expanded and 
illustrated. 

Note, for instance, the main incidents of His 
supernatural birth; "the Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee and the power of the highest shall over- 
shadow thee ; therefore also that holy thing which 
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of 



JUDICIAL UNION WITH CHRIST 3 1 

God." And Mary's Answer : "Behold the hand- 
maid of the Lord ! be it unto me according to thy 
Word." In His Temptation the Prince of this 
World is Judged, and Satan bruised under our feet. 
Rom. xvi. 20. Anointing, poured on the Head, 
reaching all the members and to the skirts of the 
robe. Psalm cxxxiii. 

To sum up then: In Him the believer finds him- 
self born anew in a supernatural birth, realizes 
complete self-offering, and renunciation of sin, con- 
fessing his faith, receiving the anointing of the 
Spirit, meeting and overcoming the Tempter, bear- 
ing his sin in expiation of penalty ; his old man is 
buried and left in the grave, the new man assumed, 
the whole inner life quickened ; a perpetual walking 
with God, an ascension above earth and a session 
at God's right hand, a hidden life of privilege and 
intercession, losing even life in unselfish ministry, 
and a coming manifestation in glory and complete 
vindication and reward, become his. 

This being the foundation truth of the whole 
scheme of Redemption, the two sacraments — all 
Christ left behind as memorials — both represent 
it : Baptism is our entering into Christ. 

The Lord's Supper, His Entering unto us. 



II 

VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

" That, Like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of Life/' Chap. vi. 4-1 1. 
Comp. 2 Cor. xiii. 4. 

From identification with Jesus in Death and 
Burial, we pass now rapidly to identification with 
him by Quickening and Resurrection. In this 
section of the argument, again we meet certain 
significant phrases on which the argument turns ; 
the meaning of which we need to apprehend and 
master, even to the nicest shades of difference 
and distinction, for the Divine Artist used no 
colors, or shades of color, without discrimination : 

1. Christ was raised up from the dead by the 
glory of the Father. 

2. Planted together in the likeness of His resur- 
rection. 

3. Our eld man is crucified with Him that the 
body of sin might be destroyed. 

4. That henceforth we should not serve sin. 



VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 33 

5. We believe that we shall also live with Him. 

6. Death hath no more dominion over Him. 

7. In that He liveth, He liveth unto God, 

Here are six or seven phrases, no two alike, all 
expressing some new phase of our oneness with 
the Risen Lord^ as before with the Crucified Christ. 
As nearly as we can discern the nice distinctions, 
they may be indicated as follows : 

1. The believer is in Christ divinely quickened, 
or made alive ; 

2. He is permitted to share in the likeness of 
His Resurrection. 

3. The Body of Sin is to be regarded as de- 
stroyed in His grave. 

4. Henceforth the believer is not to be the slave 
of sin. 

5. Out of Christ's grave is to come a new Life 
with Him. 

6. Resurrection implies deliverance from the 
dominion of death. 

7. Our new Life is to be a Life unto God. 
Taken together, these thoughts constitute a 

body of truth that is so wondrously complete, that 
nothing can be added to it, and so divinely uplift- 
ing that it should make continuance in sinning im- 
possible. Let us seek to get at least a glimpse of the 
meaning of some of these marvellous expressions. 

I. Christ was raised up from the dead by the 
glory of the Father. 

The grandeur of Christ's Resurrection, both in 



34 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

itself and as a type of the believer's new life, no 
mortal mind has ever yet conceived. It is made in 
the New Testament, both the crowning miracle 
of all miracles and the crowning proof of Christ's 
deity, while it becomes henceforth God's new unit 
of measurement as to what He can and will ac- 
complish in and for the believer. 

It is the crowning miracle, for it embraces in itself 
all others. We see Him giving sight to blind eyes, 
hearing to deaf ears, speech to the dumb, power 
to palsied limbs and withered members : have we 
ever thought how in his own Resurrection all these 
were included ? The eyes that were blind, the ears 
that were deaf, the limbs that were palsied and 
withered in death, received respectively sight, hear- 
ing, strength, and health in one simultaneous and 
supreme act. It was the crowning proof, sign, 
and seal of His Messiahship, in which He was 
declared to be the Son of God, with power by the 
Spirit of Holiness. Rom. i. 4. Consider how he 
was thrice dead — dead by crucifixion, with pierced 
hands and feet ; dead by the spear thrust, which 
cleft his heart in twain ; dead by the temporary 
enswathement, which wrapped even his head and 
excluded breath even had he not otherwise been 
dead. Was there ever a more stupendous exhibi- 
tion of divine power, attesting God's own direct 
working, than when that dead body awoke, arose, 
emerged from the embalming cloths — leaving 
them behind as a butterfly sloughs off its cocoon 



VITAL UNION' WITH CHRIST 35 

— got up from its bed of stone, and stood and 
walked, and went forth from the sepulchre ? 

And now, henceforth, whenever the believer 
would know how much God is able and willing to 
accomplish for him, in answer to the prayer of 
faith, and because of his identification by faith 
with the crucified and risen Saviour, he has only 
to consider what God wrought in Christ when he 
raised him from the dead, and set him at his own 
right hand in the heavenlies. In the Old Testa- 
ment God's unit of measurement is what He did 
for his people in bringing them out of the land of 
Egypt. Micah vii. 15. That deliverance included 
at least three things, all miracles of power and 
grace : first, the exemption from death, of the 
bloodstained houses ; second, the defiance of the 
law of gravitation, in making the waters a wall ; 
and third, the overthrow of all foes in the Red Sea. 
In the New Testament, the unit of measurement 
is a new one, according to the working of His 
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when 
He raised Him from the dead, etc. Eph. i. 20. 

This again includes three things, singularly cor- 
respondent to the other three — exemption from 
wrath on the part of every blood-sprinkled soul ; 
defiance of gravitation in the ascension of Christ, 
and overthrow of all hostile principalities and 
powers, in Christ's session at God's Right Hand. 

When we look at the power of sin over us and 
ask how it can be broken ; when, in despair of all 



36 SHALL WE CONTII^UE IN SIN ? 

self-help and self-conquest, we cry out, who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death? the answer 
is. Trust in the living God who raised Him from 
the dead. The same power that wrought in Christ 
works in every new born soul. The struggles of 
the unbeliever against sin are comparatively fruit- 
less and hopeless, and the efforts even of the 
regenerate man are unsuccessful, so long as he 
attempts to vanquish sin by his own resolve or 
power. But the believer must remember that in 
the Resurrection of Christ he receives life, and 
life stands for vitality, ability, energy, power. 
Before, he was dead in trespasses and sins, and 
death means helplessness, powerlessness, despair. 
In Christ he can do all things, while without Christ 
he can do nothing. The moment he understands 
and realizes his new gift of life in Christ's Resur- 
rection he knows that, while so one with Jesus, the 
same works which were possible to Christ become 
possible to himself. This is the wonderful truth 
taught throughout the New Testament. 

An illustration of this may be found in the fa- 
miliar fact about the magnet. It has a mysterious 
life, the power of which can be communicated. 
For example, if you take a piece of common iron 
and allow it to be attracted to the magnet, it be- 
comes attached to it, becomes itself magnetic, and 
while so held fast by the magnet attracts the iron 
or steel filings as the magnet does, but when sev- 
ered from the magnet has no such attractive 



VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 37 

power. " Apart from me, '* says Christ, " ye can 
do nothing.*' But the moment Christ lays hold 
upon you, and His life is imparted to you, His 
works become possible to you. 

We have found a second phrase here which 
teaches us that the believer shares in the likeness 
of his resurrection. This, of course, finds its 
completeness only in the final resurrection of 
saints. Yet, as Paul is here treating of our non- 
continuance in sin, there must be a larger sense in 
which we are now permitted to share in the simil- 
itude of His resurrection. Paul, writing to the 
Philippians, expresses his willingness to renounce 
all gains as losses, and all advantage as refuse, 
that he may know the power of Christ's resur- 
rection. What is that power, but the power over 
death, the power that defies corruption, that re- 
leases from the bondage of death, and sets the 
dead free to live and move and have being ? And 
what is the power of Christ's resurrection, as 
now enjoyed by the true believer, but the power 
over sin, which is death, the power that defies cor- 
ruption longer to hold us in bondage, and makes 
us free men in Christ Jesus, with capacity to serve 
God in newness of life ? 

Resurrection was to Christ deliverance from all 
further liability or possibility of death ; death 
hath no more dominion over Him. And this con- 
stitutes our Risen Saviour the first begotten from 
the dead, and the first fruits of them that slept. 



38 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

There had been other revivals, resuscitations or 
restorations of the dead, but never a resurrection 
proper till He rose ; for all others, such as Jairus's 
daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and Laz- 
arus, rose to die again — but Christ, being raised 
from the dead, dieth no more. 

We ought to get hold of this great thought, for 
the thought itself is a deliverance, that by faith 
united to Christ, I now partake in the power and 
privilege of His resurrection. The spirit of Holi- 
ness who raised Him from the dead, henceforth 
to be free of all dominion of death, dwells in and 
works in me as a believer, and assures to me de- 
liverance from the power of the sin that works 
death and is death. 

How strongly does the Apostle state the pur- 
pose and effect of such identity with the Risen 
Lord, that the body of sin should be destroyed, 
that henceforth we should not serve sin. This 
language cannot well be mistaken. We are to re- 
gard the Body of Sin as destroyed in the grave of 
Christ, and left behind there, that henceforth we 
should be free from its dominion, delivered from 
the bondage of corruption, no more to be slaves 
of sin. 

We are therefore to think of Christ's death as 
our death, His burial as our burial. His rising as 
our rising. We go into the grave with Him but 
not to stay there. His grave is the place of our 
burial, as the ground is the grave of the seed ; but 



VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 39 

burial is in order to resurrection, as the burial of 
the seed is in order to germination and harvest. 

Andrew Murray has beautifully said that the 
believer is to remember that the very roots of 
his being are in Christ's grave. The oldest oak 
stands in the grave of the acorn from which it 
sprang, and to remove it is to destroy it. How- 
ever massive the tree, it never loses its connec- 
tion with that buried seed. In the field of wheat, 
with its millions of blades, every waving stem, 
with its full grown ear, is rooted in the grave of 
the kernel of wheat that was buried, that fell into 
the ground and died that it should not abide alone, 
but bring forth much fruit. And the whole proc- 
ess of tilling the soil, what is it but making ready 
the grave by the plough — then burying the seed in 
the sowing, and then by the harrow filling in the 
grave ? 

But the grain of wheat, or the acorn, does not 
fall into its grave simply to die, but to bring forth 
fruit, to live anew in the oak or the wheat crop. 
And we are buried with Christ in order that we 
may live with him. The literal burial comes after 
the literal death, and the literal resurrection of 
the body waits for Christ's coming. But the more 
important spiritual fact here set forth, is the pres- 
ent participation with Christ in the power of His 
rising, that even now, we, by the same Spirit, come 
forth in resurrection power, to walk with Him ip 
newness of life. 



40 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

This new life by the power of God is to be a 
new life unto God. Hitherto, the life was self- 
centred, now God-centred. There is a remark- 
able expression used elsewhere by Paul : for of Him 
and to Him and through Him are all things (Rom. 
xi. 36), /.<?., God, the source of all, the goal of all, 
the channel of all. That is the law of the new life — 
but, of all unrenewed life we must say, of self and 
to self and through self are all things. Self is the 
source whence it springs, the great sea into which 
it finally empties, and the channel through which 
it flows. The new life will never be unto God, 
except so far as it is of God ; nor will it ever be 
through God, except so far as it is both of Him 
and to Him. 

Holy living becomes possible to us only in 
proportion, therefore, as we keep constantly in 
mind that the power to live a new life of holi- 
ness is wholly of God : that it is not found in self 
culture, in education and training, in the most 
honest purpose or effort, in the most helpful and 
healthful surroundings, but solely in an impartation 
from God, in the gift of the Spirit of Life, power, 
holiness, the same that raised up the Lord Jesus ; 
and, that until that Spirit animates and vitalizes 
us, we are as helpless to live a holy life as Christ's 
dead body was to move. Not until we realize this 
can we ever find the power of Christ's Resurrec- 
tion in ourselves. 

And so we must keep as constantly before us 



VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 41 

the thought that only as this divinely given life 
finds its one final object and goal in God, can it find 
its true direction or develop its true energy. You 
cannot turn a stream of water whither you will. 
Water flows freely only in its natural channel. Run 
it into desert sands and it may be absorbed and sink 
out of sight. Run it into the midst of a bog and 
it stagnates in a swamp. Run it among rocks and 
stones and it winds in and out divided into many 
streams, perhaps diverted into many channels. 
The new life, turned into the quicksands of selfish 
gratification, or the swamp of religious stagnation, 
or the rocks and stones of a divided and worldly 
heart, is perverted, sacrificed, lost. But give it 
God as its one supreme aim and end, and it moves 
like a mighty and accumulating river. A holy life 
comes from God, rests in God, and flows through 
Him as its divine channel. Everything about 
it is holy — its source, its course, its direction, its 
end. 

There are a few thoughts suggested, most prac- 
tical and pertinent, such as these : 

Our vital connection with Christ is an endow- 
ment of Power. 

Our vital union with Him demands perpetual 
watchfulness, lest it be hindered or injured. The 
Endowment is also an Entrtist7?ient. 

I. This vital union with Christ implies and is 
the Endowment of Power. Holy Living is a su- 
pernatural art and cannot be understood by the 



42 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

natural man, nor enjoyed by the carnal man. We 
are to think of ourselves as the subjects of mirac- 
ulous working, as much as when the blind received 
sight, the deaf, hearing ; the lepers, cleansing ; the 
lame, power to walk ; or the dead, life. It seems 
incredible to the unconverted man that, in a mo- 
ment of time, and simply by turning unto God, 
and receiving Jesus as a Saviour, he may not only 
be forgiven, but enabled to live a new life. It often 
seems to him like mockery, because he does not 
understand that all his previous efforts to live a 
better life have been the vain struggles of a man 
without power^ as though a palsied man should 
attempt to walk and carry his bed. 

Peter's walking on the water illustrates both 
man's weakness and strength. Our Lord appeared 
walking the waves of a stormy sea, far enough off 
for it to seem a ghostly illusion, yet near enough to 
be heard by those in the boat, perhaps two or three 
hundred yards away. When he bade Peter " come *' 
unto Him, on the water, the disciple boldly stepped 
out of the boat and actually walked on the water, 
and must have gone within arm's length of Jesus, 
when, beginning to sink, he cried. Lord save, I 
perish. For Jesus had only to put forth his hand, 
to catch the sinking man, and they walked back 
to the boat together. Now observe, while Peter 
kept his eye on the Lord Jesus, he did just what 
Jesus did, he walked on the water. But the 
moment he got his eye off from Him, and thought 



VITAL UNIOM WITH CHRIST 43 

of the boisterous wind and tossing waves, he lost 
power and began to sink. 

Holy living is as much a miracle to the natural 
man as is walking on the water, which presents no 
proper foundation for our feet, having neither 
stability nor equilibrium, and especially when 
tossed up and down and driven to and fro by the 
wind. The secret of Peter's power to triumph 
over what was otherwise impossible was this, that 
he was in touch with Jesus by faith and had Christ's 
power in him : and the secret of his sinking is 
equally plain — he lost touch with Jesus and be- 
came as any other impotent mortal, unable to cope 
with the difficulties of his situation. But what we 
need now to emphasize is that one moment he was 
strong to do the impossible, and the next moment 
utterly weak and sinking. So a human soul can be 
strong one moment and weak the next, omnipotent 
or impotent, and it all depends on the touch of faith 
which brings virtue out of Christ. 

An incident in my own pastorate occurs to my 
mind. A young man, a plumber by trade, came 
into my house early one morning, to beg my 
intervention in persuading his wife not to leave 
him, as she threatened to do, on account of drink. 
I knew something of her trials, and did not believe 
such mediation would effect any result ; in fact, I 
doubted whether I ought to attempt to dissuade 
her from her purpose, for, when drunk, her hus- 
band was a brute and her life was sometimes in 



44 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

peril. Even when he sought me, he was but half 
sober, just recovering from a debauch. I begged 
him to make separation unnecessary by letting 
drink alone — but he answered that he could not 
do it — that he had made trial again and again, 
succeeding for a few days, but in every case 
returning again to his cups. He was a church 
member, but I told him frankly that I felt con- 
vinced he knew nothing of the grace and power of 
God ; that the troubles that drive a true child of 
God to his knees, only drove him to his cups ; and 
I set before him the great truth and fact, that the 
moment a penitent sinner truly lays hold of Christ, 
all things are possible to him that believeth. 

This Endowment of Life is, however, to be es- 
teemed as a delicate and precious gift to be guarded 
from injury — an entrustment. 

Here we strike one of the most important and 
awful truths of scripture, generally overlooked. 
In this chapter we find frequent warnings against 
continuance in sin, as destructive not only of the 
power of the new life, but of its existence. And 
Paul is writing not to, or of, unbelievers ; he is 
addressing Saints. Yet hearken to his words of 
warning : 

" Neither yield ye your members, as instruments 
of unrighteousness unto sin," and hear his reason : 
"Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves 
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye 
obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto 



VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 45 

righteousness?*' That is — if a disciple yields his 
members as instruments of unrighteousness, he is 
yielding to sin, and sin is unto death. Again, he 
says, " the fruit and end of those things is death,'* 
and again " the wages of sin is death." Here is a 
threefold warning addressed to the disciple against 
going on in sin — sin leads to death, ends in death, 
and is paid its wages in death. Further on, in 
chapter viii., he adds that the carnal mind is 
death. 

Life has its laws and conditions, and being the 
most precious gift of God, must be correspond- 
ingly cherished, nourished and guarded. The 
most precious things are the most susceptible of 
injury always ; worthless weeds it is virtually im- 
possible to exterminate — valuable plants it requires 
constant care to keep alive. God gives us animal 
life — it must be fed, and in many ways protected. 
Food and sleep, air and exercise, rest and recrea- 
tion are conditions of health. Neglect your ani- 
mal life for a day and you may fatally harm it. If 
you have a very rare exotic in your nursery, how 
you protect it from the ravages of insects, from 
wintry cold, and from direct violence. Suppose you 
found some careless boy cutting into its stock with 
a mischievous hatchet, would you stand by and 
let such injury go forward ? 

Every sin tends to death and if persisted in ends 
in Death as its goal and fruit. What is deathl It 
means, in the new Testament, separation from God, 



46 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SINf 

loss of fellowship, conscious condemnation and 
decay of spiritual sensibility. You may have been 
for years a professing disciple, and have walked 
with God, but I defy you to commit any deliberate 
sin against God without at once finding death at 
work in you. The moment you sin you fall^ you 
lose the sense of God's favor, you interrupt your 
fellowship with Him; you come into conscious 
condemnation, and you dull and deaden your own 
sensibilities to the truth and the touch of God. 

It is impossible to sin with immunity from 
spiritual decay and decline, or impunity as to 
natural penalties. 



Ill 

PRACTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

A WORD may here be said with regard to Perfec- 
tion, Many have a dread of any teaching which, in 
their judgment, savors of encouraging the notion 
that sinless perfection is attainable in this world. 

1. Let us remember the two senses in which the 
ysoxA perfect is used in scripture. 

2. Let us remember that even the error of be- 
lieving one's self perfect is scarcely so bad as the 
practical error of being contented with habits of 
sinning. 

" Likewise Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead 
indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord.'* 

Up to this point in the argument we have been 
occupied with the believer's union with Christ as 
God has planned and purposed it. We have seen 
how, in God's eyes and in the scheme of redemp- 
tion, faith identifies us with the Lord Jesus in 
death, burial and resurrection ; and that the pur- 
pose of all this is that we should no longer serve 



48 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

Sin as a master, but walk in newness of life, living 
in Christ and with Christ unto God, as those over 
whom Sin and Death no longer hold mastery. 

And now, in one word, Paul turns our thought 
to the practical aspect of this union with Christ. 
What does all this mean, and how is this truth to 
be transmuted into life? How is the believer to 
reduce this theory to practice? Psalm i. John xv. 

The answer begins now to be given, and is 
found in one word. Reckon — the equivalent of 
another word. Count, which occurs first in Genesis, 
XV. 6. " Abram believed in the Lord and it was 
counted unto him for righteousness. ' Just what 
he did which was thus counted as righteousness 
is plain from the exact meaning of the original 
word — Abram amened God. When God said a 
thing, though it was humanly impossible, Abram 
said "Amen, it shall be so, even as God hath said." 
This act of faith, this saying Amen to God is else- 
where described thus : Romans iv. 3, 17--22. See 
whole passage. Compare with this Hebrews xi. 
8-19. 

In these passages occur several phrases, all 
throwing light on the meaning of the word Reckon, 
"Who against hope believed in hope," " considered 
not his own body now dead when he was about an 
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of 
Sarah^s womb." " He staggered not at the prom- 
ise of God through unbelief, but was strong in 
faith, giving Glory to God, and being fully per- 



PRACTICAL UNION- WITH CHRIST 49 

suaded that what he had promised he was able 
also to perform/* Again, in Hebrews, we are told 
that " Sarah judged him faithful who had prom- 
ised." And again, of Abraham, that in offering up 
the Son of Promise "he accounted^*' etc., 19. To 
consider no human impossibilities when God prom- 
ises ; not to stagger in unbelief before the seeming- 
ly impassable barriers to blessing, but to be strong 
in faith, fully persuaded of God's ability and to 
judge Him faithful, and account Him able even to 
give back alive what is dead — this is what is meant 
by Reckoning upon God. 

We are told in Rom. iv. 17 that God calleth 
those things which be not as though they were. 
This is exactly what faith does in reckoning God 
faithful. His word has gone forth as to a yet un- 
accomplished fact ; he gives a promise which 
seems and is, humanly speaking, impossible of 
fulfilment. Faith, instead of looking at the diffi- 
culties, looks at the Promiser ; instead of stagger- 
ing in weakness before the apparent impossibility, 
the absolute hopelessness of the pase, is strong in 
confidence, giving glory to God in advance of re- 
ceiving the promise, and, against hope, believes in 
hope. 

Thus, a word that seems to be weak is really 
strong. To many it is hard to see what difference 
it makes whether or not I reckon a thing true. 
If it be true, it is not such reckoning that makes 
it true, and if it be false, no reckoning can make it 



50 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

other than false. To many so-called believers, to 
reckon or count is simply to imagine^ and implies 
only credulity, amusing one's self with one's own 
fancies. 

Such entirely miss the true thought that lies 
behind the word reckon. So far is it from being 
a mere vain imagination to reckon on God's word 
as an accomplished fact, that it is the sotd and sub- 
stance of faith : 

Seven blessed results may be traced to such 
reckoning of faith. 

1. First of all it is a tribute of faith to God's 
ability, willingness, love and faithfulness. 

2. It is a challenge of faith, indirectly moving 
God to show himself the faithful Promiser. 

3. It is an attitude of faith, waiting in expecta- 
tion of blessing. 

4. It is, therefore, a removal of the limits which 
unbelief places upon God. 

5. It is an opening of the heart to the full re- 
ception of promised good. 

6. It is the basis of all active obedience and 
hearty self-surrender. 

7. It is the secret of a peaceful, hopeful, cour- 
ageous triumph over foes, etc. 

Reckoning is, therefore, a form of faith. It 
counts Him faithful who promised. To a true 
believer God's word is God's work ; His promise 
is His performance. With man a word and even 
an oath may utterly fail, but God is unchangeable. 



PRACTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST 5 1 

He speaks and it is done — it stands fast. Hence, 
in prophecy, we find the tenses of the verb used 
indiscriminately, an event that lies a thousand 
years ahead being spoken of as present or even 
past Comp. Isaiah liii. The Word of God was 
so accepted and counted on as certain to be ac- 
complished, that the language of prophecy pre- 
dicting coming events is the language of history 
recording past events. 

It is easy to see that such reckoning on God's 
faithfulness is the highest possible honor that can 
be placed on His word. Indeed, without such 
faith it is impossible to please Him — Heb. xi. 6. 

In Hebrews iii. occurs that remarkable phrase 
The provocation. Notice the definite article as 
though one form of offence was selected out of all 
the actual and possible sins against God, as the 
one unbearable sin. What was it ? simply unbelief 
which does not reckon on God. In the desert 
wanderings for forty years God's people constant- 
ly provoked God in this way. He told them that 
He brought them out that He might bring them 
in. Deut vi. 23. And referred them constantly 
to his miracles of interposition in their behalf in 
Egypt as proof and example of His power and 
grace, and the pledge of what He both could and 
would do for them in the actual possessing of the 
Land of Promise. But they believed not His 
words, they feared the giant Anakim, they mur- 
mured against God and many a time they threat- 



52 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

ened to go back into Egypt. Thus their unbelief 
was a four-fold provocation : first it was an assault 
on God's truth and made Him a liar ; upon His 
power, for it counted Him as weak and unable to 
bring them in ; upon His immutability, for, al- 
though they did not say so, their course implied 
that He was a changeable God, and could not do 
the wonders He had once wrought. And unbelief 
was also an assault upon His fatherly faithfulness, 
as though He would encourage an expectation 
He had no intention of fulfilling. On the con- 
trary, Caleb and Joshua honored God by account- 
ing His word absolutely true. His power infinite, 
His disposition unchangingly gracious, and His 
faithfulness such that He would never awaken 
any hope which He would not bring to fruition. 

There are two conspicuous instances in which 
our Lord said "great is thy faith. I have not 
found so great faith ; no, not in Israel : *' the in- 
stance of the Centurion, Matt, viii., and of the 
woman of Canaan, Matt, xv. In both cases the 
greatness of the faith consisted in this one thing : 
they reckoned upon God. The Centurion be- 
sought Christ in behalf of his servant, sick of 
palsy. And when Jesus said, " I will come and 
heal him," he replied, " I am not worthy that Thou 
shouldst come under my roof. Speak the word 
only and my servant shall be healed.** For the 
first and only time in His public ministry. He 
found a man who, instead of insisting on some 



PRACTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST 53 

visible sign and wonder — a personal visit of the 
yidiSttr— preferred to rest simply on Christ*s 
spoken word. And the woman of Canaan is still 
more remarkable in that, having no encouraging 
word of promise on which to lean, herself an out- 
cast Canaanite, met at first with silence and then 
with apparent refusal and even personal rebuff, 
she counted on Christ's power and grace so confi- 
dently, in the absence of all encouragements to 
faith, that she would not be sent away without the 
blessing, actually turning repulse into an argu- 
ment in her favor. ** Go thy way, the devil is 
gone out of thy daughter/* The study of the his- 
tory of Christ's personal life among men, and, in 
fact, of the entire history of God's people, shows 
that to take God at His word and count every 
promise as true, resting upon it as if it were already 
fulfilled, is of the very essence of faith. 

When the nobleman of Capernaum sought heal- 
ing for his son, who was at the point of death, 
Christ said, " Go thy way, thy son liveth," and the 
man believed, went his way, and so counted on the 
word of Christ that he did not go home that day ; 
but, although Cana and Capernaum were not ten 
miles apart, he seems to have stopped on the way 
till the next day. And the great lesson of that nar- 
rative is, whatsoever He saith unto you trust it. 

When the ten lepers sought healing (Luke xvii.) 
Christ bade them go show themselves to the priest 
as if already whole — to be pronounced clean, and 



54 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

released from ceremonial and social restraints and 
restrictions. And as they went they were cleansed 
— />., because they counted on the word of Christ, 
and proceeded as though already the blessing was 
theirs — they had what they sought. 

If the greatness of faith then lay in this, that 
God was reckoned on as true, faithful, loving, 
gracious, and changeless, in all these, the little- 
ness of faith and the greatness of unbelief must 
lie in the opposite course — God is not counted on ; 
practically His word is treated as a lie, or as 
untrustworthy. The actual work^ the wonder 
wrought, must be seen, for only seeing is believing. 

While, therefore, Faith makes mighty works 
possible, men limit God by unbelief, so that He 
cannot do mighty works. Comp. Psalm Ixxviii., 
cvi. While faith opens the door of the heart to 
a promised blessing, unbelief closes it, and so 
shuts out God's gift and God's presence. 

It is not too much to say, therefore, that to 
reckon on God is the soul of faith and the basis of 
all fellowship with Him. Christ could not do 
many mighty works in Nazareth because of the un- 
belief of His fellow-townsmen, who, remembering 
Him as the carpenter's son, counted Him unable 
to teach or work with divine power. Again, let it 
be said, so far as I reckon God able and willing, 
true and faithful, and that every word He has 
spoken He can and will fulfil, I make possible, 
both for Him to impart and for myself to receive 



PRACTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST 55 

the blessing He yearns to bestow. Hence the im- 
mense, intense significance of that oft-recurring 
phrase, " According to your faith be it unto you/' 
Every measure of blessing is determined by the 
measure of faith. 

We can see something quite analogous to this 
in our relations with our fellowmen. Harmonious 
and happy relations are impossible without a basis 
of faith. Take the credit system — the word credit 
is from credo^ I believe. You sell goods to a cus- 
tomer, counting on his ability and fidelity in pay- 
ing his bills ; and the whole banking system is 
simply counting on others' trustworthiness. What 
is a promissory note but a note that is a promise ? 
You have actually nothing but a piece of paper as 
to actual value — worthless — but you count on the 
solvency and honesty of the man whose signature 
is on it — that he has means and will to pay it, 
and you use that worthless piece of paper as cur- 
rency ; it passes from hand to hand as though it 
were gold. 

" If thou canst believe^' said Christ to him who 
said, " If Thou canst do anything,** etc. 

The link between the faith that reckons God's 
word true and the actual reception of blessing is 
a link that in the nature of things exists. To count 
on God's word brings peace. Here is a lad that 
says to his father, "When you come home to- 
night bring me a penknife," and his father says, 
"I will." Careful not to promise a child what he 



56 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

does not mean to do, and careful to do all he has 
promised, he buys the knife and comes home with 
it in his pocket. And when at night he meets his 
boy, the child does not say, "Well, I suppose you 
have not brought me the knife you promised," etc., 
but simply comes up, puts his hand in his father's 
pocket and takes out the knife. God likes to 
have us confide likewise in our Father's word, and 
without a doubt come and lay hold of the prom- 
ised blessing. This is the secret of all peace. 

Mr. George Mtiller has been observed by his 
helpers to be quite as serene and joyful in God 
when there is not a shilling in the bank or a loaf 
of bread in the larder, wherewith to cloth and feed 
his 2,000 orphans as when there is a plenty, both 
of money and of food. And the only explanation 
of such a phenomenon which has confronted an 
unbelieving world and half believing church for a 
half-century, says one of those same helpers of 
this patriarch of Bristol, is that maxim of Mr. 
MuUer himself, that " where anxiety begins Faith 
ends, and where faith begins anxiety ends." For 
him to count on God is to dismiss all care. If he 
has no money in the bank, God's riches are inex- 
haustible ; and if he has no food in the larder, his 
God has infinite supplies for all his need, and there 
shall be no lack. 

We are especially concerned now with the bear- 
ing of this matter upon holiness — in its two great 
aspects : abandonment of known sin and obedience 



PRACTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST S7 

to known duty. Elsewhere in this epistle Paul 
says, *'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make 
not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof." 
— Rom. xiii. 14. All our life long we are making 
provision, either for certainties or for uncertain- 
ties. Some things we know we shall need, such as 
food and raiment, a home and the like necessities ; 
other things we may need as crises arise, such as 
sickness, loss of property, bereavement, etc. To- 
day we have made provision for immediate wants. 
As we expect to live, we provide for the night's 
lodging and to-morrow's meals. Now, if you knew 
that to-night, at midnight, death would certainly 
end your mortal career, you would at once stop 
making provision for living. A shroud, a coffin, a 
grave, would be all the clothing, house, possession, 
you would need. God would have you count your- 
self dead to sin and hence living no longer there- 
in, and reckon yourself alive unto God and unto 
holiness. 

Your expectation has everything to do with 
your actual life. If you expect to sin you will 
sin, and if you expect not to sin, because you reck- 
on yourself no longer under sin's mastery, but 
under God's, you will find that expectation itself 
a security. Paul says we are saved by hope, and, 
in the armor of God, the very helmet is the 
hope of salvation. To count on sinning is itself 
a form of sinning ; it is reckoning the flesh, the 
world, the Devil, mightier than the Spirit of God 



5 8 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

and the Son of God, whose very office it is to over- 
come the flesh, deliver us from this present evil age, 
and destroy the works of the Devil. A veteran of 
Waterloo used to tell how the trained soldiers of 
Wellington, the night before that decisive battle 
that turned the destinies of Europe, took the raw 
recruits and told them of the skill, the capacity, 
the courage of their great commander and so in- 
spired them with confidence in the Iron Duke, 
that, however the battle might seem to waver, the 
ultimate issue might be confidently expected to 
be victory and so those raw recruits went into 
battle expecting victory and reckoning defeat 
impossible.* 

When Christ told the blind man, whose eyes he 
anointed with clay, to go to the pool of Siloam and 
wash, he may have had someone to guide him 
to the pool, but if he counted the Lord's word as 
faithful, he dismissed him there, even before he 
washed. The unbelieving man, even when he out- 
wardly submits to God's command, timidly experi- 
ments on God. He holds fast his earthly guides 
and helpers — lest the Lord fail him. If he goes to 
the pool at all he says to his guide : " If the Lord's 
word is true in my case and I receive my sight, I 
shall not need you on the way back. Wait and see 
whether I receive my sight." The true believer 
dismisses his guide at the pool — even before he 
applies the waters to his eyes. Has not his Lord 
* See Asa Mahan*s *' Out of Darkness into Light." 



PRACTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST 59 

spoken ? He counts on seeing, and in advance casts 
away all other dependence. That faith not only hon- 
ors God, it is a challenge to him to honor his own 
word. It constrains and compels him to be faith- 
ful, if he were in need of any such constraint or 
compulsion. The very fact that his humble fol- 
lower leans on him, trusts in him, reckons upon 
him, makes it, if possible, the more certain of his 
interposition. When Abraham had prayed for 
Sodom, with, do doubt, an especial thought for 
Lot's family, God remembered Abraham, though he 
did not spare the city, and brought out Lot ; and 
hear him say, as he hastened the tardy steps of 
Lot : — " Haste thee, for I cannot do anything till 
thou be come thither ! " As though He was hin- 
dered in an act of righteous judgment by the yet 
unsafe position of the man for whom Abraham had 
besought him. 



IV 

ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

" Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal 
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof — 

" Neither yield ye your members, as instruments 
of unrighteousness unto sin ; 

"But yield yourselves unto God as those that 
are alive from the dead ; and your members as in- 
struments of righteousness unto God ; 

" For sin shall not have dominion over you, 

** For ye are not under the law but under grace." 
— Verses 12 to 23. 

Here we touch the point in this great argument 
where the believer's union with Christ actually 
affects his daily life, and effects the one grand 
result, definite holy living. This is a distinct ad- 
vance on any previous step or stage of the argu- 
ment. We reach here the supreme point of applu 
cation. The judicial union shows us how God con- 
strues our relation to Christ as one with him 
before the Law; the vital presents that oneness as 
implying also a sharing of His Life, and its Spirit 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 6 1 

of power ; the practical union teaches how we are 
to construe our union with Him as to the confi- 
dence it inspires. And, now, all that has been said 
reaches its grand application : what is to be the 
actual effect on my life? If the whole passage be 
carefully examined it will be found again that at 
least seven answers are given, for in every part of 
this argument we find a complete seven-foldness, 
which strangely marks it and stamps it. 

As in the previous section the great word was 
Reckon, in this, the great word is Yield. 

First, Negative — Yield not allegiance to sin, the 
old master. Yield not your members as instru- 
ments of sin. 

Second, Positive — Yield yourself and your mem- 
bers unto God. Yield in faith^ to the enablement 
of Grace. Yield \>y practical surrender to Christ 
as Master. Yield by receiving from the heart his 
teaching. 

And so claim, possess, enjoy, the full gift of 
eternal life. 

It is also plain and emphatic that the true way 
not to yield to sin is to yield unto God. Man would 
naturally say : Let not sin, therefore, reign in your 
mortal body, neither yield ye your members unto 
sin ; but resist sin, and fight desperately at every 
point. But the Spirit says not so : the most suc- 
cessful fight against Sin and Satan is the actual 
surrender of faith and obedience to the new Master. 
The soul is never strong in the attitude of simple 



62 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

resistance. Overcome evil with good. Occupy 
yourself with God, and displace evil by good. This 
is the idea of Chalmers in his " Expulsive Power 
of a New Affection." 

1. I am to disown henceforth all allegiance to 
sin as my master. 

2. To withhold my members from all service of 
sin as his instruments. 

3. To yield myself unto God and my members 
as instruments. 

4. To trust myself to the enabling power of 
Grace. 

5. To accept Christ as my Master and practi- 
cally obey him. 

6. To receive from the heart the mould of God's 
teaching. 

7. To claim and enjoy in all its fulness the gift 
of Eternal Life. 

At every step here it is plain that actual victory 
over sin is contemplated, and positive holiness, ex- 
hibited in character and conduct. I am to think 
of myself as God thinks of me, and make the 
judicial and vital union with Christ a reality, by 
practically counting upon God's power and love, 
and actually exchanging the Sovereignty of sin for 
the Mastership of Christ. 

This point in the argument can best be under- 
stood by the change from standing to state. Stand- 
ing represents our judicial position before God, 
condemnation exchanged for justification, and 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CUEIST 63 

alienation for reconciliation. God counts us no 
longer sinners and enemies, but gives us a new 
standing as sons and heirs. Our state must cor- 
respond with our standing. Being sons we must 
exhibit His image and likeness; being heirs, we 
must be prepared for our inheritance. We saw 
that a judicial acquittal implies no necessary actual 
change in character : it is simply an act of sovereign 
mercy and grace — a declarative act. But God 
cannot compromise with sin or tolerate evil in us, 
and justification would be a bargain with evil do- 
ing if it did not contemplate and eventuate in sanc- 
tification as an actual state. God never, therefore, 
justifies without sanctifying. He first counts or 
reckons us holy in Christ and then proceeds to 
make us holy, until at last we are presented before 
the presence of His glory, without rebuke, or spot, 
or wrinkle, blame or blemish, unrebukable and per- 
fects We must remember, therefore, the calling 
of sons and the destiny of heirs and keep before 
us that great injunction and invitation : " Be ye 
Holy, for I am holy." 

Let not sin therefore reign ; this implies both a 
privilege and di power to resist the further sover- 
eignty of sin. Do not longer allow sin to rule over 
you ; this would be a mockery of my helplessness 
if I am impotent to resist. 

Sin is here impersonated as a tyrannical master, 
once obeyed and served, but whose reign is now 
at an end and his power broken. 



64 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

How am I to meet his demands and maintain 
my position of resistance ? That is the first prac- 
tical question. 

The answer is : By my Identification with Christ. 

We have seen how the whole life of Christ as 
the Last Adam was representative, and how 
every great crisis in that life has its encouraging 
lesson for us. Let us consider His Temptation in 
its bearing on this subject. Forty days at the 
beginning of Christ's public life strangely corre- 
spond with another forty days at its close. One 
represents the complete victory over the Devil 
and the other the glorious conquest over death. 
Why was Christ tempted ? not, surely, for His 
own sake, but that, having suffered being tempted, 
he might be able to succor them that are now 
tempted ; so that every tempted soul may now 
come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, knowing 
that we have a great High Priest, who knows our 
infirmities, and has compassion on the ignorant 
and them that are out of the way, etc. 

To compare Adam's Temptation with Christ's 
will show that they were strangely identical. 
Each was an appeal to the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the eyes and the Pride of life. And it is 
plain that our Lord met the Tempter, not on His 
own account, but as our representative, the Last 
Adam. Therefore, everything about that expe- 
rience has a significance for us : the methods of 
Satanic approach, the methods of Messianic re- 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 65 

sistance, and the final complete victorious issue, 
are all on record for our learning and encourage- 
ment. 

For example, we learn how subtle are Satan's 
wiles. He suggested to Christ unlawful ways of 
gratifying and satisfying natural and sinless crav- 
ings. Having no sinful propensities to appeal to, in 
the perfect man, he addressed such innocent de- 
sires as hunger, and the yearning for self-vindica- 
tion, for the speedy accomplishment of his mission, 
etc. But the ways he suggested to attain these 
lawful ends would have compromised faith, de- 
pendence on God and self-surrender ; they would 
have exhibited a lack of confidence in God's 
Fatherhood and Providence, or presumption in an 
unwarranted exposure to danger, or an attempt to 
fight God's war with the Devil's weapons. What- 
ever the exact character of Christ's temptation, it 
is enough to know that He was tempted in all 
points like as we are, yet without sin, and that, 
having suffered being tempted, He is able to suc- 
cor them that are tempted. 

It is particularly to be noticed that He success- 
fully resisted the Devil and finally actually re- 
pulsed him by the simple use of the Word of God. 
His sole attitude was resistance : He stood firm, 
and never came into close quarters with the 
Tempter as in a deadly grapple or violent wrestle. 
He calmly stood like a man with folded arms who 
fearlessly looks a foe in the face and defies him ; 



66 SI/ALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN ? 

and the only weapon He used was a text of Script- 
ure — the sword of the Spirit which He thrust at 
Satan, and by which He at last drove him back. 
Moreover, Christ's conquest was representative. 
In His victory every believer is a victor, and for 
him also, so far as he is in Christ, Satan is a van- 
quished foe. He knows that no temptation ever 
befalls him but such as is common to man, such as 
for him Christ underwent, such as, in Christ, saints 
of all ages have met and resisted. The believer 
is to meet Satan, therefore, as Christ did — folding 
his arms, take his stand, look him in the face, defy 
him, and answer all his subtleties with a word of 
Scripture. He is to be perfectly assured in ad- 
vance that Satan's power is forever broken. One 
of the Spirit's convictions wrought in men is that 
the Prince of this World is judged, not is to be 
judged, but is already judged. Christ met him, 
defeated him, drove him back, put him to rout, 
and Satan knows that his sceptre is wrested from 
his grasp by a mightier than he and his empire 
shattered. He will boast and seek to intimidate 
us by his threats, but we are to understand that 
his power over us is only so far as we concede 
him co7itroL We may allow ourselves to be taken 
captive of him at his will, and so fall into his snare ; 
but if we put on the whole armor of God and sim- 
ply standi we shall withstand in the evil day and, 
having done all, still stand unmoved, using only 
the same sword of the Spirit as Christ used. 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 6/ 

This we emphasize because of a common notion, 
most misleading and unscriptural, that Satan is 
practically omnipotent, and that, like some giant, 
he holds and carries us as helpless babes — that, 
like some resistless lion, he prowls about seeking 
whom he may devour, and if we come into contact 
with him he will tear us in pieces and there will be 
none to deliver ; or, again, men talk of tidal-waves 
of temptation that sweep them off their feet and 
carry them whither they will. All this is, I believe, 
a devil's lie, invented to put us more helplessly at 
Satan's mercy. 

It is a remarkable fact that, in three. cases of 
New Testament reference to Satan, beside the two 
accounts of our Lord's temptation, we are distinct- 
ly taught that all we have to do is to stand, James, 
who has so much to say about temptation, writes, 
" Submit yourselves to God : Resist the Devil and 
he will flee from you," iv. 7. 

Notice this language : Resist and he will fiee. 
How does this comport with current notions about 
Satan's irresistible power over men. Can a weak 
and puny babe resist a giant, and drive him back 
by simple resistance ? If you resist a tidal-wave, 
will it flee? will it not rather be you that flee ? 

Turn now to the testimony of Peter : " Be so- 
ber, be vigilant, because your adversary, the Devil, 
as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he 
may devour : whom resist, stedfast in the faith, 
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished 



68 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

in your brethren that are in the world *' (i Peter 
V. 8, 9). Here the Devil is represented as a lion, 
prowling about, roaring, and looking for his prey ; 
but so far from hinting that any saint is abso- 
lutely at his mercy, how positive is the teaching 
that all we have to do is to keep watchful, main- 
tain a holy sobriety, and take the attitude of re- 
sistance. We are to keep vigilant lest we be 
taken unawares in subtle snares ; we are to keep 
sober, lest we lose power to stand firm and main- 
tain the attitude of resistance ; but here again 
we are plainly taught that Satan can do nothing 
with a child of God who watches his movements, 
keeps prayerful, and stands firm and strong in 
Christ And we are encouraged to remember that 
other tempted saints are daily meeting and, by the 
same grace, resisting this great adversary. If such 
scriptures teach anything, it is that Satan has no 
power over us against our will to compel us to sin. 
He can do nothing with us except as we concede 
to him power over us. 

The apostle John is no less explicit. In a part 
of his first epistle, which is given to the warning 
against the power of evil spirits, and especially 
the arch enemy of God and man, he uses language 
as remarkable as any in the New Testament 
(i John iv. 4). Here the victory is represented 
as an accomplished fact, and every disciple is 
taught that in himself there dwells One who is 
greater than all these evil spirits that are in the 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 69 

world. The saint is a fortress, held and com- 
manded by the Divine Spirit, and no enemy can 
prevail against Him. " Ye are of God little chil- 
dren and have overcome them — the spirits of 
evil ; because greater is He that is in you than he 
that is in the world," 

There is one passage in Paul's writings which 
at first seems to give color to the idea that in de- 
feating Satan we must at least consent to a dead- 
ly hand-to-hand grapple (Ephesians vi. 10-16). 
Here we are told that our wrestling is not against 
flesh and blood only, but against the whole hie- 
rarchy of fallen angels. But let us read further 
and see how we are to meet these foes. *' Strong 
in the Lord and in the power of His might, we 
have only to withstand '* — notice the repetition of 
this word — " that ye may be able to stand against 
the wiles of the devil, able to withstand in the evil 
day, having done all to stand.*' And so he con- 
cludes : ^^ Stand therefore^ God has provided an 
armor of resistance, covering the disciple from 
head to foot ; and clothed in that panoply he can- 
not be overcome. When Satan hurls his mos^ 
terrible weapons, his fiery darts, the shield qf 
faith needs only to be held up to receive them^ 
and they are quenched, and the one and only of-: 
fensive weapon represented as to be employed 
is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God. 

I am, therefore, not toyielj^ to Satan, but calmly. 



^0 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

resolutely, to resist and dispute at every point his 
claims and advances. 

But in the word of God we are never left to the 
negative; the positive is always added. We are to 
withhold our tongues from filthiness and foolish 
talking and jesting, and use them for ministering 
grace to the hearer. We are to put off all that ill 
becomes a child of God, but put on whatsoever is 
holy and beautiful in temper and conduct. 

Let us look now at the positive teaching of the 
word. We are not to be content with resistance ; 
there is a positive persistence — a persevering en- 
deavor, a running a race, etc. 

" Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Be not 
conformed, but be ye transformed " (Rom. xii.). 
The only hope of not being conformed to this 
world is that I am transformed. I shall vainly 
seek not to yield to Satan if I do not actually 
yield to God. I must have a service of some sort 
to employ me, and if it be not God's it will be the 
Devil's. If no man can serve two masters, neither 
can any man serve none. Idleness is service to the 
Devil. The only way to know that I am strong 
is to use my strength ; the use of it both makes 
one conscious of it and increases it. 

This lesson is taught here and elsewhere so 
beautifully that we may well stop to learn it. Let 
us look at it, first, in its relations to obedience to 
God ; second, as to soundness of doctrine, and 
third, as to consistency of life. 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST J I 

Here we meet a very emphatic command : 
" Yield yourselves unto God, and your members as 
instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin 
shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are not 
under the law, but under grace.*' 

Here is a command, a motive, an encourage- 
ment. We are not under law, but under grace. 
Law enjoins, but does not enable. It puts before 
us a standard, but gives no power to obey and 
overcome. Grace still puts before us a high and 
holy standard, abating not a jot or tittle of the 
high claims of obedience, but it adds gracious en- 
ergy, strength, enabling power. To that enabling 
power we are to entrust ourselves to do and bear 
the whole will of God. We are to accept this 
grace as the guaranty for obedience and con- 
formity to God. And while it makes us strong to 
resist Satan and sin, it is to make us equally 
strong to receive and obey the known will of God. 
Our body is the temple of God. Let Him occupy 
and consecrate His own Temple, and let every 
part of it be sacredly given up to his inhabitation. 

Again, the Apostle teaches us to yield ourselves 
to God's holy teaching (v. 17). God be thanked 
that ye who were the slaves of sin, have received 
from the heart that mould of teaching whereunto 
ye were delivered. The figure seems to be that 
of a matrix or mould, such as is used to give 
plastic clay or wax, or molten metal, a desired 
shape. God has a definite mould of teaching, and 



72 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

SO has the Devil, and we are carefully to distin- 
guish between them, and beware to what sort of 
doctrine we submit ourselves. God's great matrix 
of character is His word. If we get thoroughly 
acquainted with that^ and fully yield ourselves to 
its influence, we shall take on its whole impression 
until we grow to be scriptural believers. That 
word is to be the final arbiter in every contro- 
versy : To the law and to the Testimony. One of 
the subtlest devices of the devil is to offer us a 
type of teaching that is plausible and pleasing to 
the natural heart, and recommends itself by the 
fact that many professed believers accept it — nay, 
it is even outwardly and in some things conformed 
to the word of God, but is really unscriptural in 
its essence ; it leaves out, if it does not contra- 
dict — vital truths. 

Dr. A. J. Gordon used to say that a certain pop- 
ular preacher was a first-class preacher of the sec- 
ondary truths of our holy faith, but that his preach- 
ing entirely lacked the primary truths, such as 
atonement by blood. Regeneration by the Spirit, 
etc. 

If you submit yourself to unscriptural teaching, 
however recommended by illustrious names, you 
will take its impress and begin to doubt the verities 
of religion. One of the marks by which you may 
know Satan's mould of doctrine is that it leaves 
doubt instead of faith. He leads men to think the 
Gospel mould is narrow and cramped^ that it may 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 73 

do for women and children and small men, for 
ignorance, superstition and credulity, but not for 
the intelligent and wise and great. And so peo- 
ple, who once believed, learn to doubt their be- 
liefs and believe their doubts, if they do not go 
further and hold beliefs positively opposed to the 
divine teaching. 

Now, the one rule for a disciple is to devoutly 
study his Bible and yield himself to its teaching. 
In other departments men kriow in order to believe; 
in God's school we must believe and obey in order 
fully to knoWy for it is only as we practically test 
this mould of teaching by conformity to it, that 
we actually learn its perfection. But to all who 
thus test it, by daily conformity and prayerful 
obedience, it becomes supremely satisfactory. One 
becomes more and more eager to know what it 
teaches and obey all its commands. Obedience is 
found to be delight and the organ of clearer vision. 
God's word is found and eaten and, like food, gives 
both joy and strength. 

In the epistle to the Colossians Paul very beau- 
tifully shows us how much the consistency and 
beauty of a Godly life depends on this perpetual 
and prayerful subjection to God. — Chap, iii. The 
epistle is a sort of commentary on these three 
chapters in Romans. In the first two chapters 
the union of the Believer with Christ is presented 
in its judicial and vital aspects ; and then, at the 
third chapter, the practical and actual begin to 



74 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

be put before us: **If ye then be risen with 
Christ," etc. 

Note the following injunctions, all based upon 
the fact that we are one with Christ in death and 
resurrection life : 

1. Seek those things which are above; />., look 
up to your risen Lord. 

2. Set your affection on things above ; />., mount 
up and look down on earth from heaven. 

3. Mortify therefore your members which are 
upon the earth; />., live there and let what is 
down here die, 

4. Put off all these : 

5. Put on therefore : above all these things put 
on charity. 

6. Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 

7. Let the peace of God rule. 

8. Be ye thankful. 

9. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you. 

10. Whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus. 

Here we have ten general exhortations, all based 
on the argument in chapters i. and ii. 

Upon two of these exhortations we may fix our 
thought: ''Put off r '' Put onr 

At first we meet a seeming paradox : Paul says 
ye have put off the old man and yet he sdiys put off 
all these ; and again ye /lave put on the new man, 
and yet adds put on, etc., and, stranger still, he 
makes the fact that we have put off and put on the 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 7$ 

reason for putting off and putting on. But now ye 
also put off all these, seeing tJiat ye have put off ; 
ye have put on, therefore put on. How shall we 
reconcile these contradictions ? 

1. We must make actually true what \s judicially 
true and let our state correspond with our stand- 
ing. Ye have died judicially, mortify therefore 
your members — be dead SiCtna,lly, Judicially ye have 
put off the old man and put on the new man, now 
practically and actually put off and put on. 

2. But it is, perhaps, a fuller and clearer explana- 
tion to note just what we are said to have put off 
and put on, and what we are bidden to put off and 
put on. Ye have put off the old man^ now put off 
all these also which belong to the old man ; ye 
have put on the new man, now put on all that be- 
longs to the new man. Life must be consistent to 
be complete and beautiful. When Christ rose and 
came out of the sepulchre he could not leave cor- 
ruption behind, for his flesh never saw corruption. 
From his birth that "holy thing," born of the vir- 
gin, was immaculate and, with no taint of sin, could 
not decay. Hence, even the body of Christ is 
called in Psalm xvi., Thy Holy One — incapable of 
corruption. But Christ did leave behind the only 
thing that savored of corruption — his grave 
clothes, and this is particularly noted in the Gos- 
pel according to John, Comp. xix. 40, XX. 5-7. The 
narrative is very specific. John himself saw the 
linen clothes lying there, and both he and Peter, 



'jS SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

on closer examination, saw the linen clothes that 
wrapped his body lying in the sepulchre, and the 
cloth that wrapped his head, not lying with the 
rest, but in a separate place. When our Lord 
arose and came out of the tomb, he had no further 
use for grave clothes, and they were conspicuously 
left behind. They would have been both unbe- 
coming and cumbersome to a risen and active 
Redeemer ; and as they belonged to death and the 
grave, they were all^ even the cloth that wrapped 
his thorn-crowned head, all deposited and left be- 
hind in the place of death. And yet Christ went 
not forth naked. Whence came those resurrec- 
tion robes we know not, but they were not the 
same as he wore before crucifixion, for those had 
been parted among the mocking soldiers. 

How clear the lesson. Have you been buried 
with Christ ? leave in his grave all that belongs to 
the old man, for all this belongs to death and 
corruption. Have you risen with Christ ? put on 
all the garments of glory and beauty that belong 
to the new man. You were clad in pride, be 
clothed with humility ; you were invested in your 
own righteousness, which you see to be filthy rags ; 
now put on Christ, and in Him the righteousness 
of God. 

The grave clothes that belonged to the old man 
have about them the association and infection of 
sin, the contagion of Evil. Hence Jude bids us, 
even when pulling sinners out of the fire, to hate 



ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 7/ 

even the garment spotted by the flesh. I heard, 
from a friend, of a most malignant case of disease 
in which, after the death of certain victims, every- 
thing which had been associated with the disease 
was ordered to be burned ; subsequently the same 
disease attacked another member of the family, 
and was due to the preservation, from the fire, of 
a beautiful sofa cushion which had been used as a 
pillow by those who had first fallen a prey to the 
destroyer. Whatever is associated with a life of 
sin should be cast off and renounced, if we are to 
be safe from the infection and contagion of this 
soul-destroying disease. Every garment spotted 
by the flesh is to be hated. 

A friend in Newport told me of his early history 
and how he was enabled to meet and defeat every 
temptation by a simple resort to scripture. When 
tempted to marry an ungodly woman, because of 
personal attractions and wealth, he read in the 
word, " only in the Lord." When tempted to crowd 
out a neighboring tradesman, whose premises he 
wanted to add to his own, he read " devise not mis- 
chief by thy neighbor, seeing he dwelleth securely 
by thee," etc. In every crisis of temptation a word 
of scripture sufficed. 

But let the Word of God further instruct us. 
We are told what to put off and put on. Put off 
all these : Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy 
communication out of your mouth ; lie not one to 
another. 



78 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

Put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness 
of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing and 
forgiving one another, and above or outside all 
these, put on Charity, which is the bond of perfect- 
ness. To the old, unrenewed, carnal man, anger, 
wrath and malice — sins of temper — blasphemy and 
filthy talking and lying — sins of tongue — were nat- 
ural and befitting corruption. To the new man, 
renewed in knowledge and image of God, mercy, 
kindness and humility, meekness, long suffering 
and forgiveness are the only appropriate belong- 
ings ; and the very girdle that, outside of all these, 
binds them together and keeps them in place is 
that Love that is the bond of perfectness. 



MARITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

Here we may well take shoes off our feet as on 
holy ground. The next aspect of the believer's 
union with Jesus Christ is taken from Marriage^ 
and hence is called MaritaL Here it is the figure 
of a second marriage, the obligation and relation 
involved in the former being dissolved by death, 
so that the woman, thus left free by the decease 
of her husband, marries another man. 

" Know ye not how that the law hath dominion 
over a man as long as he liveth ? etc. 

" Wherefore ye also are become dead to the law 
by the body of Christ that ye should be married to 
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, 
that we should bring forth fruit unto God." That, 
and the following verse constitute the key of this 
part of the argument. 

One difficulty confronts us — what seems a hope- 
less mixture of figures. In the first part of the 
representation it is the party that is under the 
dominion of the law which is personified as hus- 



80 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

band, that is supposed to live, while the husband 
dies ; but in the latter it is the party married to 
the law that becomes dead to the law, so that for 
a consistent figure it must now be the law that 
survives and enters into a second union. 

We may solve the difficulty by saying, as is often 
done, that no figure is adequate to represent such 
truth, and so, dismissing it as an analogy^ accept it 
simply as diparable^ applicable at a single point of 
resemblance. If we adopt such method of inter- 
pretation, it is plain that the vital matter is this : 
a previous and binding relation is somehow dis- 
solved, released by death, and the surviving party 
is free to enter into a new relation. As a matter 
of fact the believing penitent sinner has in Christ 
found such release from a previous legal relation 
and has become Christ's own bride. 

But there is a deeper solution, for we are touch- 
ing a deeper mystery. Christ died, but it was not 
possible that he should be holden of death ; hence 
He who died also lives forevermore. And so the 
believer who in Him died also in Him lives. Both 
things are, therefore, true. In one aspect of the 
believer's experience he is dead, and so cannot en- 
ter into any new union ; in another he lives from 
the dead and is, therefore, open to a new marital 
relation. In a sense it is the law that survives, 
while the sinner dies under its penalty. In an- 
other sense it is the law that dies as a rule of Jus- 
tification and as a controlling and Condemn- 



MARITAL UmON WITH CHRIST 8 1 

ing Power over the sinner, while the sinner lives 
as a believer, to be free to be married unto Him 
on whom all his desire is now centred. 

We begin now to see why Paul refers to that 
first marriage in Eden as a Mystery concerning 
Christ and the Church. Adam slept, and during 
his sleep God took a rib from his side and from 
it made woman, and the woman became wife. 
Adam's sleep was the type and prophecy of 
Christ's death, which is at once the death of the 
sinner and the birth of the believer. Adam's re- 
awaking was the type and prophecy of Christ's 
resurrection, making possible the wedlock of the 
believer with his Lord. 

In this figure of husband and wife we touch the 
most complete and wonderful figure, thus far found 
in scripture, to present the union of the believer 
with Christ, And it is found in the Old and 
New Testaments alike, perhaps the one ideal that 
most pervades the scripture. It meets us first, 
in Genesis, in the typical wedlock of Adam and 
Eve, and last, in the Revelation, in the marriage 
of the Lamb and his bride. Most wonderful, per- 
haps, is the fact that the controlling conception is 
that of a marriage with one who has been the wife 
— nay the cast - off, adulterous wife of another. 
Nothing is more moving and melting in point of 
pathos of love, the poetry of tenderness, than some 
of these Old Testament portrayals of Redeeming 
Grace. For example, Ezekiel xvi., where we reach 



82 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

the lowest point in the degradation of the adulter- 
ous woman, and the highest point of grace in her 
restoration and reconciliation. 

The great central point whence we must survey 
the marriage relation as the chosen symbol and 
parable of the Believer's union with Christ is this — 

the IDENTITY OF LIFE FOUNDED UPON LOVE. It wiU 

be seen that we have constantly been mounting 
higher and higher in the study of this great argu- 
ment. In the Judicial union it was the identity of 
the last Adam with those whom he represented as 
Head of a Race ; in the vital union it was the 
identity of the Lord of Life with those whom, by 
His Spirit, He quickens. In the practical union, it 
was the identity of a Leader and Champion with 
those who follow him ; and in the actual union it 
was the Identity of a Sovereign and Master with 
those who yield to Him in holy subjection. But 
now it is the identity of Husband with the Wife 
who is to him bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. 
Partnership indeed, but the highest of which we 
know. 

Let us stop to notice the closeness of this unity 
and the perfection of this identity. 

The wife loses herself and her separate entity 
and identity in her husband. Originally drawn 
from his side she was called woman, because taken 
out of man ; and in marriage she is counted as in 
a sense returning to her place within him, nearest 
his heart, to be again part of his very personality. 



MARITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 83 

Hence she leaves even father and mother to cleave 
unto him ; she gives up her family name and takes 
his ; forsakes her family home to make her home 
with him ; her property and even herself she sur- 
renders to his control, and even her own will and 
way become henceforth subordinate — no longer 
twain, but one flesh. And a greater mystery is 
the result of this — for the two lives thus made 
one, become the united source of life ; marriage 
is the secret of parentage, and through it Adam 
begat a son in his own likeness, another type of 
the holy fruitfulness of true believers. 

What shall we say, then, of the exceeding riches 
of the unsearchable grace here presented to our 
thought ? We can only stand in awe before such a 
truth and look up as before a mountain whose top 
is lost in clouds, as to something that is high, so 
that we cannot attain unto it. That the great God 
in Christ should stoop so low and lift us so high, 
that he should actually take us out of the filth of 
our lusts and raise us to the dignity of a bride that 
shares the ecstasy and purity of holy love ! This 
is incredible but for the fact that He himself so 
declares it to be. 

And if you are ever tempted to bring down the 
word of God to a human level, and doubt its in- 
spiration, turn to the fifth chapter of Ephesians 
and ask yourself what but a divinely taught pen 
could ever have represented the wife as exalted to 
so sublime a plane. Read the seven-fold descrip- 



84 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

tion of Christ's Husbandly Devotion to His own 
Church : 

He loved her and gave Himself for her. 

He sanctified her and cleansed her. 

He nourishes and cherishes her. 

He will present her to himself. 

Now this marvellous picture of the Divine Hus- 
band's lavish love for his believing Bride is profess- 
edly drawn from marriage, and yet earthly wedlock 
at its best furnished no model for such a picture. 
In Paul's day there was not a husband on earth who 
thus thought of or treated his wife, even among the 
chosen nation, God's peculiar people, or even where 
there was true love and tender attachment. What 
husband ever so lost himself in his wife as to sac- 
rifice himself for her, loving her not for her purity 
and innocence, but despite her impurity and guilt ; 
instead of being dependent for his love upon her 
virtuous loyalty, consecrating himself to her sancti- 
fication and cleansing, overcoming her weakness 
and alienation by a nourishing care and a cherish- 
ing tenderness, and finally presenting her to him- 
self, made all that she is by his own unselfish trans- 
forming Love? Most marital love is a love of 
complacence, answering to the attraction of beau- 
tiful character ; here it is a love of benevolence, 
bestowed notwithstanding the repulsion of wicked- 
ness and abomination, and persistently holding on 
until perfection takes the place of deformity and 
depravity. Tell us, ye who count the Bible a 



MARITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 8$ 

human book, whence Paul drew his artist's model 
for this fairest portrait of wedlock to be found in 
all literature ? Could he have penned this descrip- 
tion had he not been taught of God ? 

This relation is one of the highest power and 
privilege, and hence it is here presented in its 
bearing on our noncontinuance in sin. 

Marriage is the sphere of blessing : i, identity. 
2, blessed possession, etc. If the wife surrenders 
herself, she meets in a high sense a surrender of 
Love to herself; she gives, and in giving gets. 
She says ** I am his," but she can add " my beloved 
is mine." It is a mutual possession. So the believer 
can say in Christ, My Lord and My God. 

Marriage is the sphere of privilege. It brings 
the wife into the intimacies of her husband's life. 
There is a sharing of thoughts and love and pur- 
pose, so that in a true wedlock there comes to be 
a unity found nowhere else. Discord there can- 
not be, because two hearts with all their desires 
and hopes are made one. So of Christ and the 
believer. 

Marriage is the sphere oi parentage. Eve was 
the mother of all the living, because Adam was 
the father of all the living and she was his wife. 
" Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth 
and subdue it," v.ras the command God addressed 
to the first wedded pair. Dominion over the lower 
sphere of nature depended on multiplication of the 
higher orders of life, and only so can be under- 



86 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

Stood the typical force of that formal and ideal 
marriage which forecast the wedlock between 
Christ and His church. Mary the Virgin could 
become the mother of the Messiah only as the 
power of the Highest overshadowed her and the 
Holy spirit came upon her. Then that Holy thing 
was born of her which was called the Son of God. 

Would you bring forth fruit unto God, who once 
brought forth fruit only unto death ? You must 
become the Bride of Christ. In union with him 
holy fruitfulness becomes possible. No holy thing 
can be born of you that is not begotten of him. 
But in union with Him everything holy becomes 
as natural and as necessary as in union with sin 
evil fruitfulness becomes inevitable. 

This marital union involves also corresponding 
excltisiveness. 

In all our human relations duty and delight keep 
pace — the higher the privilege and the closer the 
intimacy the stronger the debt we owe to love and 
the more exclusive the bond. For example, there 
are three terms we apply to our relations to 
others whom we know : acquaintance, friendship, 
wedded love. Acquaintance is not intimate, and 
it has no bounds ; one may have thousands and 
tens of thousands of acquaintances. But when 
acquaintance passes into friendship, the circle nar- 
rows and includes fewer persons ; and in propor- 
tion as the intimacy is closer the number is fewer. 

But again the obligation is correspondingly 



MARITAL UNION WITH CHRIST 8/ 

binding. A man owes little to his acquaintances 
beyond the courtesies of common life. But to his 
best friends he owes much, for intimacy and unity 
are purchased at a costly price. My friend has a 
right to expect of me and exact from me a pe- 
culiar jealousy for his reputation, peculiar devo- 
tion to his welfare and happiness, and a peculiar 
sacredness in guarding what he entrusts to me. 
But when we come to marriage the union is so 
close that it narrows down the circle so that it em- 
braces only two within it and can admit no more. 
Nay, the thought of admitting another is destruc- 
tive of its purity and perfection. Here the obliga- 
tion is such that either one would die for the other, 
interposing the body between the other and any 
threatened danger. 

Now, let us remember that the believer's rela- 
tion to the Lord Jesus is marital, and its obliga- 
tions, like its privileges, are marital — the relation 
is so close it is exclusive — it closes in two parties 
and closes out all others. No man can serve two 
masters ; but much less can one wife yield her- 
self to two husbands. Any love for another is dis- 
loyalty to the lawful spouse, and is known by one 
of the most offensive words in human language — 
adultery. 

This word when used in scripture and applied to 
the believer has generally no reference to viola- 
tions of the seventh commandment as such, but 
of the first. When James rebukes adulterers and 



88 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

adulteresses he is referring to those who, while 
married to Christ, are coquetting with the world 
that is his enemy ; and he says " the friendship of 
the world is enmity with God." 

This passage of scripture, which lifts us to the 
very summit of exalted privilege, confronts us with 
the thunders and lightnings of Divine warning. 
You are permitted to regard yourself as the Bride 
of Christ. But remember that because you are 
thus admitted to Bridal union, every act of sin 
strikes at the very foundation of this union, as 
adultery strikes at the very basis of marriage. 
What would you think of a wife who, while calling 
a man her husband, ventures to see how far she can 
trifle and flirt and coquette with a betrayer, and 
yet not lose her husband altogether? and what 
shall be thought of. a believer who ventures to see 
how far he can dally with the forbidden pleasures 
of this world and the desires of the flesh, and not 
altogether forfeit His Saviour ? 

" Do ye think," adds James, ^*that the scripture 
speaketh in vain : The Spirit that dwelleth in us 
jealously desireth us ? " I suppose that somewhat 
obscure passage means that the Heavenly Bride- 
groom, now seated on His Father's throne, claims 
His Bride for Himself and jealously desireth her 
altogether for Himself. Think of it ! God claims 
and desires you exclusively for His own love, use 
and delight. That thought ought to make sin 
impossible, and, so far as it possesses and really 



MARITAL UNI OAT WITH CHRIST 89 

controls, it will make sin as unnatural as impurity 
is to a loyal wife. 

The warning may explain what follows in this 
chapter. We have two unions contrasted here: 
one with the law, which leaves us to the working 
of lust and which brings forth only sin ; and the 
other with Christ, which makes love the controll- 
ing passion and brings forth fruit in newness of 
Life. Now, if we mistake not, this much-disputed 
passage, Rom. vii. 7-25, shows us the believer in 
his experience of the two conflicting principles at 
work — Love of God on one hand, lust of flesh on 
the other hand, contrary the one to the other. Yet 
even the regenerate will is not strong enough to 
overcome, and Paul cries out, " I approve the law 
as righteous, holy, perfect, good and spiritual *' ; 
but he is not practically delivered from the Power 
of Evil ; and whenever he thinks of his still exist- 
ing bondage to the old habits and tendencies 
of the carnal nature, he can only cry out, " O 
wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death." But it is not a 
hopeless cry. He answers, " I thank God, through 
Jesus Christ, Our Lord ! '' We all have uttered his 
cry of despair. How many of us can as confidently 
use his shout of victory ? 

The bearing of all this on holiness is perfectly 
plain. Marriage is the secret of parentage — union 
with Jesus will in all cases be the secret of holy 
fruitfulness. While, and so far as, united vitally 



go SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

to Christ, we have power to love and serve and 
obey God. 

A curious illustration of this truth in another 
sphere was given to me by the Rev. Mr. Devins. 
At Northfield, at the Auditorium, the reporter of 
the New York Tribune was seeking to transmit, by 
telegraph, to the paper, one of the addresses there 
delivered. He found that for some unknown 
cause the current and circuit were broken — the 
wire would not work, and this made it necessary 
to send over to South Vernon and transmit from 
a new station. The linemen found that the wire 
at one point near the operator's table had lost its 
insulation and was touching the ground and dis- 
charging its electric power into the earth. What 
a parable of life ! There were men and women in 
that audience who were in such contact with the 
world that they could neither contain, retain, nor 
transmit blessing. If you want Christ-life to be- 
come Christ-power, you must maintain separation 
unto God. The touch of sin is fatal to power. 



VI 

SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

Up to this point there has been no mention of 
the Holy Spirit in this argument on non-continu- 
ance in sin ; and, indeed, so far in this epistle the 
Holy Spirit has been barely referred to twice 
(i. 4 and v. 6). But when we reach this eighth 
chapter we find it so full of the Holy Spirit that 
within these thirty-nine verses He is at least 
twenty-eight times distinctly mentioned or obvi- 
ously referred to, and His activities pervade the 
whole chapter. 

It would seem that this must be a very impor- 
tant feature of this part of the great demonstra- 
tion that to go on sinning is both needless and 
unbelieving. In the latter part of chapter vii., 
from verse seven to the close, occurs one of the 
most difficult and disputed passages in the word 
of God. Does it refer to the regenerate or unre- 
generate man ? What is the state of this man who 
delights in the law of God after the inward man, 
yet finds another law in his members warring 



92 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

against the law of his mind and bringing him into 
captivity to the law of sin ; who is this that when 
he would do good finds evil present with him ? etc. 
I do not hesitate to say that in my own judgment 
this is a faithful portrait of every child of God, 
up to the point in his experience where the Spirit 
of God becomes to him a living, present indwelling 
and inworking Spirit of power and holiness. And 
if this be the true interpretation we can under- 
stand why this experience of the disciple is 
brought into the argument at this point. Hitherto 
the Holy Spirit has been left out of the discussion* 
We have had the working of the law, the death 
and resurrection of Christ, the working of faith 
identifying us with Him, the refusal to yield to 
sin, and the positive surrender to God, and the be- 
lieving soul wedded to the Lord Jesus in bridal 
union in order to bring forth fruit unto God. 
And yet it is true that, even with the apprehension 
of all these great facts and truths, the believing 
soul, feeling the awful power of inborn and inbred 
sin, finds an inevitable warfare before him, in which 
the enemy is stronger than himself. How shall 
all these truths, which he has been taught in these 
two chapters, about his judicial, vital, practical, 
actual, marital union with Jesus be made so real 
to him as to strengthen him with courage for the 
encounter? How shall the image of his Master 
and Lord be so kept before him that he shall never 
lose sight of him ? How shall a new law in his 



SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 93 

^^piritual life assert itself as sufficiently mighty to 
annul the power of the law of sin and death ? At 
the conclusion of that eighth chapter Paul says, in 
despair, " O wretched man that I am ; who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ? " He 
feels like a victim of ancient tyranny, chained 
to a dead carcase and compelled to drag it about 
with him, breathe its infection and the taint of 
corruption, and he despairs of self-deliverance. 
But despair changes to hope, for he thanks God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. For what does 
he thank God ? It seems to me it is for that next 
and most blessed source of deliverance of whom 
the eighth chapter is the supreme revelation — the 
Holy Spirit of God, whom he recognizes as the 
Divine indwelling Power and Person who accom- 
plishes for the believer these things. 

First — He takes of Christ and shows to the be- 
liever. 

Second — He testifies of Christ to the believer. 

Third — He glorifies Christ in the believer. 

We shall see what this means, but let it be now 
said in a word, that upon the Holy Spirit depends 
wholly the clear, true apprehension of all the facts 
of Redemption — until He works in us they are 
fancies or, at best, theories rather than facts. So 
soon as He practically possesses us we become 
adjusted to these truths, so that they become act- 
ually effective in our daily life. 

It cannot be by any accident that this eighth 



94 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

chapter contains a fuller revelation of the Spirit in 
His work in the believer than any other in the Epis- 
tles ; and the bearing of all this teaching on the 
believer's holy living can be seen only by a careful 
collation and comparison of the testimony herein 
contained. Let us take notice of each mention of 
the Spirit herein found, and of the peculiar and 
characteristic feature of each separate mention. 
We pass by that in the first verse, as it is gener- 
ally regarded as an interpolation, not being found 
in the best manuscripts. 

Verse 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death. 

Here is Life in contrast to death ; Liberty in 
contrast to bondage. 

4. That the righteousness of the law might be 
fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but 
after the Spirit, 

Here is a walk after the Spirit — strength 
in contrast to weakness ; obedience in contrast 
to sin ; ability in contrast to disability and in- 
ability. 

5. They that are after the Spirit do mind the 
things of the Spirit, 

Here is a mind of the Spirit in contrast to a 
mind of the flesh, a habit of thinking, feeling, de- 
siring, loving, choosing spiritual things. 

6. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. 
Here is Life in contrast to death ; peace in con* 



SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 95 

trast to alienation ; subjection in contrast to rebel- 
lion ; pleasing God instead of enmity. 

7. Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit^ if so 
be that the Spirit of God dwell iii you. 

Here is a mutual abiding — the Spirit in us and 
we in the Spirit ; language only intelligible when 
the Spirit is conceived as the element in which we 
live, move, and have our being. 

9. Now, if any man have not the Christ Spirit he 
is none of His. 

Here is identity with Christ by partaking of his 
spirit, the one test and proof of being in Christ 
and His being in us, 

10. The spirit is life because of Righteousness. 
Here is the identity of Life and righteousness, 

showing what the life of the Spirit is, enabling 
power to do the will of God. 

11. If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from 
the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Jesus 
from the dead shall also quicken your 77iortal bodies 
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. 

Here we have the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of 
Resurrection — imparting His quickening power 
even to the mortal body (note the distinction 
between the mortal and corruptible body, as in 
I Cor. XV.). The mortal body is the living body, 
liable to death ; the corruptible body is the dead 
body, already under power of death. The Spirit 
that dwells in the body exercises even over the 
body a life-giving and enabling power. 



96 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

13. If through the Spirit ye do mortify the deeds 
of the body ye shall live. 

Here the Spirit is the power that makes dead 
what ought to die, as He makes alive what ought 
to live. 

14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they 
are the sons of God. 

Here the Spirit, who is life and liberty, is also 
the leader of the child of God. Notice a leader is 
not one who goes before simply, but who takes us 
by the hand and insures our following. 

15. Ye have received the Spirit of adoption 
whereby we cry Abba Father, 

Here the Spirit is the secret of zon^z\o\x%so7iship^ 
giving us power and right to address God as Father 
in contrast to a servant, who says Master, or a 
subject, who says Lord — the life of privilege and 
possession Godwards. Here love as well as faith 
is traced to the Spirit. 

16. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our 
spirit that we are the children of God. 

Here we have assurance of sonship by the Spirit, 
and of heirship and expectancy. All hope^ as well 
as faith and love, the fruit of the Spirit. 

26. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. 

Here the reference is to our natural ignorance 
and incapacity to pray aright. We know not, etc. 
The Spirit intercedes in us and for us ; our groan- 
ings are his movings. 

What a body of teaching on the Spirit's relation 



SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 97 

to the believer's holiness ! To him are here traced 
Life, Liberty, strength, ability, holy mind, peace, 
subjection of will, pleasing God, identity with 
Christ, participation in the nature of God, ena- 
bling power, bodily quickening and mortifying, 
leadership in holiness, conscious sonship and heir- 
ship, the filial spirit and the filial tongue, assur- 
ance of faith and love and hope, and help in our 
infirmities, especially in prayer. 

These are all the direct references to the Spirit, 
but every verse in this sublime chapter must be 
read with Him in it if it is understood. 

After examining, one by one, the references to 
the Spirit which this chapter contains, we cannot 
avoid the conviction that here is to be found the 
key to that rapturous shout of thanksgiving in 
chapter vii. 25. When Paul is at the very verge 
of the abyss of despair of all self-help or legal 
sanctification, he cries out " who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death ! I thank God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord/' And this chap- 
ter reveals what was that new truth that was the 
solution of all his difficulties. 

We ought to have no difficulty in locating this 
experience of the apostle if we judge his case by 
our own. After we have learned what Christ has 
done for us, and what is our standing before God 
in him ; after we have passed into the regenerate 
state and our will is to do the will of God, we 
still find a lack of power to perform^ and are con- 



98 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

stantly brought to the verge of despair at our in- 
effectual efforts. 

A glance at the biography of eminent saints will 
show this as the common experience of believers. 
They discover a double tendency within them — a 
tendency downward and a tendency upward. 
There are two laws — one of gravitation toward 
Evil, another of gravitation toward God and good- 
ness : may we not say, using scientific terms, a 
centrifugal and a centripetal force, one of which 
sways at one time and the other at another. And 
the problem of the new life is how to ensure the 
constant sway of the centripetal. There is an 
honest effort to serve and please God. But the 
temper is unsanctified, the tongue is untamed, the 
disposition is tainted with envy and jealousy and 
malice and uncharitableness. 

There is even a deeper difficulty. We notice 
that in the seventh chapter the Law is as prom- 
inent as the Spirit is in the eighth. In twenty-five 
verses we find the word law or commandment 
twenty-eight times and the Spirit not once. Those 
who construe this experience of Paul as that of an 
unregenerate man contend that it is unconceivable 
that he could thus look to the law for justification 
after he was converted. Just so, but may he not 
be here depicting the conflicts of a man who looks 
to the law for sanctification as the Galatians did ? 

There is a peril which besets the Saint exactly 
correspondent with that which besets the Sinner. 



SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 99 

The sinner goes about to establish his own justifi- 
cation by a resort to legal works ; and when he 
comes to utter despair of self-help he finds pardon 
and peace in the finished work of Christ on the 
Cross. But how often the converted soul, going 
about to establish his own sanctification, resorts 
to legal works. After accepting Christ as Sav- 
iour, there is a continual temptation to a legal 
spirit. Every day we are prone to measure our 
acceptance with God by our measure of faithful- 
ness ; what we have done or failed to do, and so 
we are tossed up and down and driven to and fro 
by our double mindedness ; but from this state of 
doubt and conflict— this Doubting Castle — there is 
but one deliverance. We must learn now thnt the 
law must be abandoned as our hope of sa?ictificatton 
just as it was previously abandoned as our ground 
oi Justification, Having found peace with God by 
looking to Christ's finished work 07t the cross, we 
must now find the peace of God by looking to 
Christ's finished work on the throne^ of which the 
Holy Spirit is both the sign and seal. 

After Paul met Christ on the way and learned 
that in being baptized into Christ he put on Christ 
and washed away his sins, he doubtless, like his 
fellow-believers, got into the snare of seeking 
sanctification by his own efforts, and got his eyes 
off Jesus, and hence needed this new lesson to 
learn how to serve God in holiness and righteous- 
ness. He had learned how he was alive unto God 



lOO SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

in Christ ; how, as a regenerate man, he had a new 
Master to serve, a new mould of doctrine to obey 
from the heart, a new husband to love and submit 
to as an espoused bride ; and now the question 
arises, how and where shall I find the enabling 
power to do all this ? Where is the divine at- 
traction sufficiently mighty to overcome all the 
yearnings and longings and corrupt tendencies of 
the flesh in which dwelleth no good thing. 

The eighth chapter of Romans is the triumphant 
answer. In Jesus Christ as Saviour I am justi- 
fied ; through Jesus Christ as Lord I am sanctified. 
Justified by His death and shed blood, sanctified 
by His life and Spirit shed forth from heaven, as 
His blood was shed forth on earth. As there 
was no solution to the problem of justification 
without the Death and Resurrection, there is no 
solution to the problem of justification without 
His Ascension and Intercession, the immediate 
fruit and sign of which is the coming of the Holy 
Spirit to dwell in each believer, and become to 
him life, liberty, power, strength, and all else need- 
ful to victorious life. 

This is the germ of thought expanded in the 
Eighth of Romans, and it is perhaps the greatest 
thought ever put before the mind of a believer^ and 
therefore the most difficult for any carnal mind to 
take in. By faith I am made one with Christ in 
this supreme sense : " He that is joined to the 
Lord is one spirit." i Cor. vi. 17. The Holy 



SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST lOI 

Spirit which was in Him the spirit of Life and 
holiness and resurrection and newness of life, is 
in me ; and what He wrought in Christ, He will 
work in me just so far as my complete surrender 
to Him makes it possible. May it be put still 
more plainly? Faith in Christ's work is indispen- 
sable to salvation ; faith in the Spirit's work is as 
indispensable to sanctification — to holiness. 

This greatest truth is here presented in many 
aspects — like a jewel with many faces, each re- 
flecting the light at a new angle and with new 
colors — for brevity we may select the following : 

Three Laws are mentioned : 

1. The Law of God — the rule of Duty, 

2. The Law of sin and death, a tendency in the 
carnal man. 

3. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus 
which makes free from the law of sin and death. 

The Holy Spirit, a new mind or mode of appre- 
hension ; a new law or tendency ; a new life or 
secret of power ; a new element or sphere of exist- 
ence. 

The Holy Spirit is here presented as the Comple- 
ment to Christ's work ; as the new Element in which 
the believer lives : as the Ligament of union with 
Christ. 

He is thus the secret of Enablement. The lig- 
ament is what makes the joint perfect and holds 
bone to its socket, and the invisible bond between 
the believer and Christ, whereby identity is es- 



102 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

tablished and unity perfected and ability assured ; 
nay, affinity or like nature and attraction is to be 
found only in Him. 

One of these thoughts is here so conspicuous we 
may well tarry to consider it. The Holy Spirit is 
the disciple's Element, We use this word, Element, 
of a simple substance beyond which our analysis 
cannot go ; and because the ancients held that 
there were four original elements — earth, air, fire 
and water — these have been commonly known as 
the four elements. But the word element has been 
used of the state or sphere of anything, natural to 
it, suited to its existence ; and so we talk of earth 
as the element of the plant and the worm ; of air 
as the element of bird and insect ; of water as the 
element of the fish and marine plant, and of fire as 
the element of the Salamander, whose cold body 
was supposed to be insensible to heat and to have 
power not only to resist, but overcome it. 

The eighth and ninth verses not only suggest an 
element, but can be understood only as applied to 
an element. " Ye are not in the flesh, but in the 
Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
Of only one thing can it be said that it is in that 
which is also in it, viz,\ an element. The earth 
is taken up into the plant as the plant is in the 
earth. The fish is in the water, yet the water is 
in the fish : the bird is in the air, yet the air is in 
the bird, and if you put the poker in the fire, the 
fire is also in the poker, as you find out if you 



$PJRITUAL UNJOIN WITH CHRIST 103 

touch It. So the Spirit is the element in which the 
believer lives, moves and has his being. 

Now we observe seven facts about the elements : 

1. Vastness, the element being always greater 
than all that lives in it, and sufficient for all. 

2. Vitality, the element supplying life to that 
which it contains and sustains. 

3. Variety and contrariety, the elements differ- 
ing and even antagonizing each other. 

4. Independence, the element being independent 
of the animal. 

5. Indispensableness, the element being neces- 
sary to the animal. 

6. Mutuality, the element being in the animal 
while the animal is in the element. 

7. Individuality, each element having its own 
peculiar conditions, persistence, and resistance to 
temporary exposure to hostile influence. 

All these are applicable to the Spirit of God. 
He is infinite, while all that live in Him are fi- 
nite. He is, therefore, larger and greater than all 
the children of God whom He sustains, and while 
all may have all there is in Him, none can absorb 
Him so as to rob any other or diminish aught of 
the supply. 

Again, He is the source of all vitality, the very 
breath of life, and of all sufficiency to the believer. 

Again, there are two elements — the flesh and 
the Spirit, and these are contrary the one to the 
other. The worldly man lives in the flesh, and, 



104 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

according to the kind and measure of his life, he 
thrives in that element. The spiritual man lives 
in the Spirit and can thrive only in that divine 
element. 

Again, the Holy Spirit is independent of the 
believer and can exist in all His fulness without 
him, while He is indispensable to the believer, who 
cannot exist as such without constant dependence 
on Him. 

Again, there is Mutuality, for it is as true of 
Him that He dwells in the believer as that the 
breath is in the body ; yet it is equally true that 
the believer abides in Him, as that the body must 
abide in the atmosphere in order that the atmos- 
phere may supply new breath at each instant. 

And, finally, the Spirit of God has his own condi- 
tions. In the world of nature there are amphib- 
ious creatures that can live in more than one 
element, but in God's spiritual realm there are no 
amphibious beings. True, there may be a tempo- 
rary departure from the conditions of true life 
without the utter destruction of that life, as the 
fish may leap into the air or the bird drop into the 
water, and each may survive, because it returns 
to its own element ; but to continue in the air is 
death to the fish, as to continue in the water is 
death to the bird. 

Now, here, if we mistake not, is the most valuable 
suggestion in all this teaching, for it explains how 
and why we are sustained in holy living or, on the 



SPIRITUAL UNION WITH CHRIST 105 

Other hand, commit sin. So long as we keep in 
the element of the Spirit, how can we intelligently 
and voluntarily transgress against God? John 
writes: "He that abideth in Him, sinneth not,*' 
/.^., so long and so far as we abide in Him, we 
are kept from sinning ; it is when, so long and so 
far as we drop into the lower level, and are in the 
other element of the flesh which stifles our true 
spiritual life, that we sin. The disciple finds the 
element of the world, in which the carnal man 
lives and delights, stifling to his true life ; and the 
worldly man finds the element of the Spirit, if by 
any means he gets into it, stifling to his worldly 
life. These are contrary the one to the other, so 
that ye may not in the element of the Spirit do 
the things that ye would in the element of the 
flesh. Gal. v. 17. 

The thought I would impress is, that, in all vic- 
tory over sin, everything depends on maintain- 
ing the vigor and vitality of spiritual life by abid- 
ing in the Spirit of God, and that the one peril is 
that we lose the blessed enablement by losing the 
vitalizing contact. 

Here, then, are we to recognize the whole 
secret of enablement. There is a ligament which 
unites the believer to Christ and through which 
the secret of His life and power is communicated 
to us — our unity being assured with Him and in 
Him with God. We become partakers of His 
Spirit, and feel His attraction and affinity God- 



I06 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

ward working in us. We think as He thinks and 
love as He loves, and are drawn as He is drawn, 
from above, not from beneath. Here is en- 
ablement, empowerment. The soul born of God 
hungers and thirsts after God. Like birds which, 
hatched by an intruder, when they hear the voice 
of the true mother, fly to her, a soul born of God, 
hearing His voice, instinctively flies to His wings 
and takes refuge in His bosom. 



VII 

ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST 

Romans viii. 18-39. 

Here we reach the fitting climax of this sublime 
argument, and get the crowning point of prospect. 
Paul begins at this point to lead his readers to 
take a wider outlook both into the eternal past and 
future. Time, with its sufferings and struggles, 
its temptations and trials, is forgotten in the 
boundless horizon of God's eternal purpose in 
Jesus Christ. The transition is not abrupt, but 
natural ; for he has just been referring to the 
Spirit's co-witness to our sonship and heirship ; 
and, as the heir looks forward to an inheritance, a 
new conception is now introduced, 

" This present time " has occupied our attention 
hitherto : our present identification with Christ by- 
faith as the ground of our resistance to sin and 
yielding to God, and our present relations to Him 
as Saviour, Substitute, Master, Lord, Bridegroom, 
as a preventive against sin, as an incentive to 



I08 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

holiness. But now the inspired apostle says : " I 
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are 
not worthy to be compared with the glory which 
shall be revealed in us '*j and from this point the key 
words are "expectation," "hope," "shall be," 
" waiting," to be conformed, " redemption," all of 
which look toward an eternal future ; or such 
words as " His purpose," " foreknow," " predesti- 
nate," " loved us," which turn our thought back to 
the eternal past. And thus looking back to that 
love and purpose which had no beginning because 
before all things ; and forward to that final con- 
summation which knows no after disaster, Paul 
completes his great argument by the rapturous 
persuasion, that, as there is now no condemnation, 
there shall be no separation. 

When we apply to this aspect of our union with 
Christ, the word eternal, we must first understand 
the meaning of that grand word. It differs from 
the words " unending" and "immortal " and "per- 
petual," for they refer only to the future. For in- 
stance, an immortal life is a life that, being begun, 
has no end, but an eternal life is one which has 
neither beginning nor end. 

How, then, can it be said that the believer has 
"eternal life," or that his union with Christ is 
"eternal," when we all have a definite hour of 
birth, and so of beginning ? 

Here lies one of God's deep mysteries. When 
by faith we become united to the Lord, we are 



ETERNAL UNION- WITH CHRIST 109 

considered as sharing His eternal life, as partakers 
of the Divine nature, and as heirs of God's entire 
glory — past, present and future. Human illustra- 
tions do not reach to the grandeur of this theme, 
but we may get a glimpse of this mystery through 
other forms and facts. For example, when you 
set a scion in a mature tree, and the graft becomes 
thoroughly incorporated with the new stock, it 
becomes part of the whole tree, inseparable from 
it, and in a storm or time of frost or drought, all 
the strength that is in the tree by reason of age and 
growth sustains and nourishes the young and fee- 
ble graft. The graft shares not the future of that 
tree's life alone, but all the accumulations of its 
past also ; it becomes identified with the whole 
history of that tree. When a child is adopted, or, 
especially, is born into a family, is made or be- 
comes a son and heir, that child becomes also one 
with the whole history of the family, all its dignity, 
property, history, its fame and fortune, as well as 
its name and social standing. It is impossible to 
draw a line at the point where the new son enters 
the family, whether by birth or adoption, and sep- 
arate the previous from the coming history. As 
far back as the family lineage is traceable, the 
beginnings of the accumulation of wealth, the 
starting point in culture and character — from that 
remote point whatever the family is and represents 
has been developing, and the new son comes into 
the inheritance of it all. There is a law of he- 



I lO SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

redity that looks back, as well as another law of 
i?iheritance^ that looks forward. 

The child born by the Spirit into God's family 
has not only his inheritance, but his heredity. 
Whatever the family of God means, or includes, it 
belongs to every child of God. The believer, new 
born, born from above, made a partaker of the di- 
vine nature, becomes also a partaker of the divine 
history, dignity, possessions, glory. The life before 
him has no end, and is immortal, but more than 
this, it has a new quality and character, for im- 
mortality is not necessarily a blessing. Eternal 
life partakes of God's own eternal and unchange- 
able perfection ; it knows neither death nor decay, 
but is perpetually young, knowing no advance of 
age, which is a form of decay. Whatever there is 
in God's eternal past that is beautiful, victorious, 
glorious, becomes part of every believer's right and 
privilege and possession. 

This part of the epistle can be apprehended only 
when this sublime idea possesses the mind. Here 
the august mystery of God's Eternal Purpose in 
our salvation, sanctification, glorification, is un- 
veiled to our astonished eyes. Believers are de- 
scribed as " the called according to His purpose," 
and this thought is further expanded till it is un- 
mistakable : " For whom He did foreknow He also 
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 
His Son that He might be the first born among 
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predes- 



ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST III 

tinate, them He also called, and whom He called, 
them He also justified, and whom He justified, 
them He also glorified.'' 

Even a child of God may stumble at this mystery 
of Election, but that it is taught here is unmistak- 
able. Every saved soul must trace salvation, back 
of all human choice of God, to God's choice of us. 
There was in God both a foreknowing and a fore- 
choosing, and consequently a foreworking. His 
was the whole scheme and plan of our salvation. 
He devised it in the solitudes of eternity, and he 
wrought it out and is still working it out through 
the ages. Five distinct stages in the development 
of this plan of salvation are here named : 

Whom he did foreknow ^ 

He also dXdi predestinate. 

He also called. 

He also justified. 

He also glorified. 

One important step seems here omitted. — He 
also sanctified — which in the complete series be- 
longs between the last two, but it is implied in the 
preceding phrase "to be conformed to the image 
of his Son." 

Now let it be noticed that, from the foreknow- 
ing and forechoosing of saved souls, every step, 
calling, justifying, sanctifying, glorifying, is a step 
taken by God, rather than by man. What we call 
saving faith is not an original movement toward 
God but a responsive movement to His. Faith 



112 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

chooses God, but in response to His choice of us ; 
faith calls on God, but in response to Kis calling 
of us ; faith justifies because it accepts His jus- 
tifying work ; faith sanctifies because it surrenders 
us to His sanctifying spirit ; faith brings us to 
glory, but because it follows Him who prepares 
the glory for us and leads the way in person to 
that glory. The one comprehensive thought is 
that my salvation from first to last is the work of 
God. It is for me a present salvation having a 
definite moment of beginning in my acceptance 
of Christ as Saviour. But for Him it is an eter- 
nal salvation : its roots reach down and back to 
the eternal past of his purpose, and its branches 
reach up and forward to the flower and fruit of 
perfection in glory in the future. 

Such is the grand conception, and if we seek to 
know its practical bearing on holiness we have only 
to follow the apostolic argument. Paul himself 
asks, " What shall we then say to these things," 
which is equivalent to asking, What bearing has 
this truth on noncontinuance in sin ? We have 
only to note the phrases he uses, to see what God's 
eternal purpose has to do with our holiness. 

We select the following conspicuous expres- 
sions : 

The glory which shall be revealed in us. 

The glorious liberty of the children of God. 

The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our 
body. 



ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST II3 

We are saved by hope. 

All things work together for good, etc. 

Predestinate to be conformed. 

More than conquerors, etc. 

Here are seven emphatic phrases, but they are 
only hints of a truth too deep and broad and high 
for our measurement. The one impression from 
the whole of the latter half of this chapter is that 
our salvation^ with all XhdX pertains to it^ justifica- 
tion, sanctification, glorification, is provided for in 
the changeless purpose of God. And, therefore, im- 
portant as are my will and faith and obedience and 
conformity^ the grand assurance of my present 
holiness and final perfection is found in another 
Will back of mine, prior to it and supreme over 
it — the Will of God. To yield myself to God is 
therefore to yoke my impotence to His omnipo- 
tence, and to make possible for Him to work in 
me as only He can work. The more fully, there- 
fore, I trust and entrust myself to Him, the more 
absolutely and fully will He work in me and 
through me His perfect work. 

This, then, is the grand central thought : Every 
believer*s Life is a plan of God, the Father, and 
hence part of a larger, all-embracing plan of the 
Trinity. A careful study of the verses, from the 
sixteenth verse to the thirty-ninth will show that 
at least seven features of this plan are here ex- 
hibited, all of them bearing on the question of 
noncontinuance in sin. 



114 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

1. Eternity. — This plan embraces past, pres- 
ent, and future, and we find here the tenses that 
correspond to this threefold fact — retrospect, 
aspect, prospect. There is the past : " Whom He 
did foreknow He also did predestinate, called, 
justified." There is the present : We are the 
children of God ; now no condemnation. We suf- 
fer with Him the sufferings of this present time ; 
the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 
together. We ourselves groan within ourselves. 
The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, maketh inter- 
cession for us. We are more than conquerors. 
There is also the future — if children, then heirs — 
that we may be glorified together. The glory which 
shall be revealed in us; the creature itself, also 
shall be delivered. Waiting for the adoption, to 
wit : the redemption of our body. What shall 
separate us ? etc. 

What a help and joy to know that God loved 
and chose me long before I loved and chose Him ; 
that He began the good work in me and will con- 
tinue it until the day of Jesus Christ, and that the 
perseverance of the saints is the perseverance of 
God! 

This suggests a second prominent feature of 
God's plan in human salvation : 

2. Certainty. — Throughout this chapter there 
is an air of confident assurance. It begins, 
" There is therefore now no condemnation ; " it 
ends, " There shall be no separation." It is not a 



ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST II5 

may be, but a shall be, throughout. Man's plans 
are always uncertain, for man's will is vacillating 
and his energy, human, and his power to carry out 
his own will, finite. But God's Will moves on its 
changeless course through the ages. Perfect 
from the beginning, it admits no change, and in- 
finite power assures its execution. 

3. Unity and Universality. — God's plan is 
all comprehensive. It embraces all the persons of 
the Godhead, and all are distinctly mentioned 
here. We are declared to be sons of God and 
heirs of God ; sons with Christ and heirs with 
Christ, and both Christ and the Spirit are repre- 
sented as our Intercessors with the Father. 

All believers are embraced in this plan. As 
many as are led by the Spirit of God are here 
embraced in the sons of God : " Them that love 
God and are the called according to his purpose." 

** All things " are embraced in God's plan, and 
this phrase is used here in two widely different 
senses. In verse 28 it means all the varied occur- 
rences and experiences of life. In verse 32 it 
refers to the varied bestowments and endowments 
of grace. God's plan leaves nothing out. All 
things work, and work together for good — all 
things, even trials, at which we murmur and com- 
plain. The storms which threaten to uproot the 
trees really root them more firmly and deeply in 
the soil. The blows which one might think would 
make the cast-iron brittle, really cause it to un- 



Il6 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

dergo a sort of cold annealing and increase its 
strength and tenacity. The enforced rest of sor- 
row and pain, sickness and disappointment, John 
Ruskin compares to the rest in which there is no 
music, but the making of music ; not the end of 
the tune, but a pause in the choral hymn of our 
lives, during which the divine musician beats the 
time with unvarying count, catching up the next 
note as if no breaking-place had come between. 

God's plan includes all our temptations. There 
is a divine philosophy of evil, and it is made to 
work good. Temptation has its holy office, its 
benign purpose. It tests us, and so attests us ; 
it strengthens by revealing our weakness and so 
the source of our true strength, and it actually 
uplifts and sanctifies by teaching us how to resist 
and overcome. Blessed is the man that endureth 
temptation, for when he is tried and proved, he 
shall receive the crown of life, the prize of the vic- 
torious soul. 

God's plan includes the whole creation which 
shared the curse of the fall and must share the 
blessing of the Redemption ; and hence the whole 
material creation is represented as groaning and 
travailing in pain, like a woman with child, waiting 
for that new creature that is brought forth only 
through such travail. 

God's plan is like a vast universal mechanism 
that fills the universe and embraces all things. 
He who loves God, and is led by His Spirit, comes 



ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST II7 

into that plan as a wheel into a perfect machine, 
and henceforth he is a part of God's universal 
harmony and system, all *' circumstances" being 
embraced. 

4. Safety and Security. — If God be for us who 
can be against us. There can be no successful 
opposition. What shall separate us? There can 
be no real separation. When once in such a sys- 
tem, there can be no collision^ for every part of 
this perfect mechanism has its definite place and 
sphere of revolution, and interference cannot be 
imagined, for divine forethought and wisdom are 
behind all things. Nor can there be any sepa- 
ration, for that would imply breakage and dis- 
aster. 

5. Sanctity. — We are predestinated to be con- 
formed to the image of His Son. However strong 
and whole hearted my purpose to be the Lord's, 
my dependence is on a Higher will. We have seen 
how the apostle depicts the heroic but unsuccess- 
ful conflict of the regenerate man, with the old 
man of sin, before he appreciates the power of the 
indwelling, inworking Spirit of God ; but now we 
see the will of God reinforcing and strengthening 
the will of man. 

Let us borrow an illustration from common life. 
A man in New England has a mill, whose wheel 
depends for motion on a small and irregular water 
supply ; but he tapped a river near by, and so got 
an unfailing stream at his disposal. We need to 



Il8 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

tap the river of God and have His will energize 
our own. 

6. Victory. — We are more than conquerors. 
How is that possible ? That expression is used 
only here, and where can be found a more sig- 
nificant one. What is this more than conquest ? 

(a) He is more than conqueror who organizes 
victory, not out of conquest but out of defeat. 

{b) He is more than conqueror who not only 
vanquishes the foe but makes foes his tributaries 
and allies, 

(c) He is more than conqueror who is not only 
victor in the fight, but who conquers without 
fighti?ig. 

(d) He is more than conqueror who never knows 
even the fear of the foe^ but whose hope and faith 
are victors in advance. 

A true child of God is thus, in every sense, a 
more than conqueror. God is with him and none 
can be against him and succeed. He organizes 
victory out of defeat. As Christ died, but in dy- 
ing brought deliverance from death, the child of 
God dies to live, and in death triumphs over 
death. Hear Paul : " For thy sake we are killed 
all the day long" — a perpetual dying, and that 
dying a victory over self and Satan. He loses life 
to find it ; he is buried as a seed, but the harvest 
comes up from the burial. 

The disciple turns his foes into his friends. The 
trials and temptations that seem to threaten his 



ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST II9 

peace and his power and even his final perfection, 
are the means of promoting them. What the Devil 
means to use as a messenger of Satan to buffet 
him, becomes the means of a revelation of the in- 
finite strength made perfect in weakness. The cir- 
cumstances which, when they come between us and 
God, eclipse Him, when they are seen in the light 
of God's plan become an additional cause of our 
thanksgiving, luminous with his purpose. 

The disciple conquers without fighting. He 
stands still to see the salvation of God. He aban- 
dons effort to rest on the finished work of God. 
And so confident is he of victory that he gives 
thanks in advance for a triumph that is so sure 
that before the battle the song of victory is in his 
mouth. 

This eighth chapter of Romans has a sweet word 
for the Christian disciple on this subject of vic- 
tory. 

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
Elect ? Verses 33-39. We too often pass care- 
lessly over these words, without noticing their 
comprehensiveness. 

Three great questions are asked and each has 
reference to a different class of foes ; 

" Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
elect?" 

" Who is he that condemneth ? " 

"Who shall separate us from the love of 
Christ?" 



I20 SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN? 

In all these questions the pronoun is mascu- 
line, implying a person or at least a personifica- 
tion. 

The Person who brings charge against God's 
Elect is Satan, the accuser of the brethren. But 
we are not to be afraid of his accusation, how- 
ever founded upon the facts of our unbelief 
and unfaithfulness. For we have in God our 
Justifier. 

He that condemns is the Law^ which is in this 
passage personified, as compelled to accuse and 
condemn. But, while justly condemned by the 
law, there is an atonement all-sufficient to expiate 
guilt of past sin and an advocate all-sufficient to 
meet the present and future needs of a forgiven 
soul. 

The separating barriers between us and God 
are here personified and enumerated, and they are, 
first seven and then ten, making seventeen in 
all — tribulation, distress, etc. — study the seven- 
teen and you will find nothing left out. Love 
triumphs over all. Tribulation, love uses to refine 
and purify ; distress, love uses to bring us closer ; 
persecution becomes by love a test of love, and 
its witness ; famine and nakedness, peril and 
sword only teach us our true satisfaction and 
security in God. Death only brings the beloved 
together ; even the demons, from the fallen arch- 
angel down, are under control of Him who is ex- 
alted above every name that is named. 



ETERNAL UNION WITH CHRIST 121 

7. GLORY, which shall be revealed, includes : 

1. Partaking of the Divine Nature — sympathy 
with holiness, antipathy against evil. 

2. Divine perfection. 

3. Divine bliss — character and condition har- 
monious. 

We have thus outlined this great argument, but 
it is only an outline. God is challenging every 
believer not to go on sinning^ and the challenge is 
based upon the believer's union with Christ, which 
is manifold in its aspects, and almighty in its 
power. 

We can only say, as we conclude, that it is a 
master device of Satan to blind our eyes to the 
true nature and possibilities of our identification 
with the son of God, and so to prevent our know- 
ing, claiming, and enjoying all its benefits. John 
Huss, when talking to his friend in prison at Con- 
stance, about a dream he had, of the Pope and his 
bishops trying to efface an image of Christ on the 
walls of his cell, being advised to let alone his 
dreams and prepare for his defence, replied — " I 
am no dreamer : that image of Christ will never 
be effaced ; it will be painted afresh in all hearts 
by much better preachers than myself, a7id /, 
awaking from the dead a7id rising from the grave ^ shall 
leap with great joy.'' Even Pope Adrian, the only 
really earnest Pope of that day, said to the Diet 
of Nurnberg (1523), " The heretics Huss and ye- 
rome are now alive again in the person of Martin 



122 SHALL WE CONTLNUE IN SIN? 

Luther."' What if the image of Christ as the Be- 
liever's Substitute and Surety could be inefface- 
ably impressed on the very tablets of our being ! 
How would He who rose from the dead, live again 
in the person of the believing saint, and a new 
triumph over sin, death, and Hell ! 



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